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RAGING BULL. . . Manny Pacquiao (right) launches a counter-attack in the ninth round, landing some massive blows on Jeff Horn before the Australian ex-schoolteacher’s surprise win in their WBO welterweight title fight in Brisbane yesterday. — AFP

BRISBANE. — Former schoolteacher Jeff Horn stunned world champion Manny Pacquiao to win the World Boxing Organisation welterweight crown with a controversial unanimous points decision in Brisbane yesterday.

In front of a packed hometown crowd at Suncorp Stadium, Horn punched his ticket to boxing’s big time with an incredible performance to claim Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight championship.

The three judges scored the closely fought bout 117-111, 115-113, 115-113 in Horn’s favour. Horn immediately called out Floyd Mayweather (Jnr) after the fight and declared himself “no joke” to the legions of boxing experts across the world who gave him no chance and mocked his credentials.

Pacquiao’s camp and observers including Lennox Lewis slammed the decision, as the eight-weight world champion said on Filipino TV: “We thought that we won this fight.” “There is no problem with me if there’s a rematch,” he added. “It would be better if the rematch would be held in the Philip- pines.”

Pacquiao (38) is considered one of the greatest fighters of his generation. His camp had predicted a “short and sweet” win over Horn, a 2012 Australian Olympian.

But Horn showed no signs of being overawed by the occasion, relentlessly taking the fight to the Filipino great and not allowing him to find any rhythm.

“I feel like he couldn’t get a hold of my gap. I was feinting a lot, trying to upset his rhythm and I think that was working throughout the majority of that fight,” said Horn, who stands three-and-a-half inches (nine cm) taller than Pacquiao.

Pacquiao did manage to land some left jabs in the opening rounds to take the early points, but Horn refused to back away and his brawling tactics paid dividends through the middle stages.

“He was quick when he put combinations together but I felt controlling the gap made it easier to see the punches coming,” Horn said. “The size difference helped too.”

Pacquiao, bleeding profusely from cuts high above both eyes caused by accidental head clashes, launched a savage counter-attack in the ninth round and appeared to have Horn in trouble with some massive blows that left the Australian staggering.

“The ref came over (at the end of the round) and said ‘show me something or I’ll stop the fight’,” Horn said. “I thought, ‘Hang on, hold your horses — I’m not that bad, I can keep going for sure’.”

Horn recovered and came out strongly in the 10th. “That was just my heart that kept me going,” he said. “He got me with a couple of good shots and I did go backwards more in that round than in any other round in the fight, but I still felt good.

“But I came back in the 10th, 11th and 12th.” — AFP