Jeff Horn and Terence Crawford, who will finally meet (after two postponements and switches in venue) in Las Vegas on June 9, already make for an intriguing fight. But now, with both fighters opting to wear horse-hair gloves rather than the customary foam-padded gloves in use today, the fight is even more interesting. In speaking with The Guardian, Glenn Rushton, trainer of reigning and defending WBO welterweight champ Horn, said that in picking horse-hair gloves Crawford has decided to “go back to the primitive days.”
Rushton is now sure the June 9 fight will end via a KO, that it is going to be “dangerous in there.” Naturally, Rushton believes his fighter will get the win.
“It is a real game-changer and probably doubles the shock, I would say, through the glove,” Rushton said of the choice of gloves. “If he wants to go back to the primitive days, if he wants a gladiator contest and fight with these in, then so be it. If anyone lands a clean punch with one of these on it’s going to hurt just like getting a bare punch to the face. It’s going to be dangerous in there. I think this is going to be a knockout. To survive 12 rounds with two very aggressive fighters here, it’s going to be almost superhuman to do it. Watching the power he’s displaying lately, when I visualise Jeff with these gloves out there, it’s going to be one heck of a battle.”
So will Crawford, who will be having his 147 pound debut, live to regret taking the horse-hair gloves; the gloves where less protection is provided to the knuckles and more damage can be inflicted? Or does Crawford, as special a talent as he is, feel he can make a statement in his welterweight debut and that with horse-hair gloves it will be he who ramps it up a touch power-wise?
Is the fact that horse-hair gloves are to be used really the “game-changer” Rushton says it is, or is pound-for-pound star Crawford still a considerable favourite to get the win next month?