Rising Australian boxing star Jeff Horn added another belt to his collection with a convincing ten round points decision over Argentina's Alfredo Blanco on Thursday.
Horn, 27, (12-0-1, 8 KOs) won the interim WBA Oceania title and retained his WBO Oriental, PABA and IBF Inter-Continental belts, as he wore down his South American foe at Auckland's Trusts Stadium.
The Queenslander controlled the fight inside, especially in the second half, and earned an unanimous decision, with all judges scoring the fight 99-91.
Horn predicted Blanco 25 (15-4, 8 KOs) would be awkward and he lived up to that billing.
His style was a mixture of lunging, crouching, clinging and swinging and he threw plenty of wide looping punches.
While many missed their mark or were blocked by Horn's gloves he did occasionally pierce the Australian's guard.
Blanco, who dropped a ten round points decision to Horn's 2012 Olympic teammate Cameron Hammond last year, was also advertised as tough.
He was certainly that, holding onto his proud record of never having been stopped.
Blanco came out swinging and occasionally landed, but Horn remained composed, though he was off target with several of his own punches in the first round.
In the second Blanco tagged the Australian with a stinging right which galvanised Horn and suddenly he became more focused and precise with his punches.
He dominated the second part of the round and all of the third, backing his opponent up and winning the inside exchanges with quickfire combinations.
Horn got tagged with another decent right in the fourth and Blanco landed a couple more, but Horn again weathered the brief storm and stayed composed.
"He was very awkward, he's got such long arms," Horn said.
Horn reasserted himself in round five, again dominating the inside exchanges, with Blanco landing little and off target with some wide air swings.
The pattern continued in round six and for the remainder of the bout.
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