WILL MANNY PACQUIAO VS. JEFF HORN CLICK?
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 06 Jan 2017
The fans of Senator Manny Pacquiao were surprised by the choice of Top Rank CEO Bob Arum of his next foe. Arum selected the WBO and IBF intercontinental champion Jeff Horn from Australia as PacMan's next ring assignment.
After several popular names cropping up such as Terence Crawford, Vasyl Lomachenko, and even Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin to include old favorites Floyd Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez, a relatively unknown boxer surfaced in the news in the person of the Brisbane-born Jeff "The Hornet" Horn.
Horn had his professional debut on March 2013 and had fought only 17 times with 16 wins, no loss and one draw. He knocked out 11 opponents for a 65% KO rate.
These foes however were virtual unknowns except for his last rival South African Ali Funeka, the former International Boxing Organization world welterweight champion. Horn won by 6th round TKO after sending Funeka twice to the canvas in the 5th and 6th as reported by BoxRec.
Horn also went down in the 3rd round in the WBO intercontinental welterweight title fight last December 10 at Vector Arena, Auckland, New Zealand. At the time of the TKO, Horn was leading in all three judges' scorecards in a scheduled 10-rounder.
Horn was a 2012 London Olympian and a participant in the 2011 World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan but had not won a medal in both prestigious tournaments.
In London, he was defeated by Denis Berinchik of Ukraine, 21-13 in the quarterfinals. Berinchik lost in the gold medal match to Roniel Inglesias of Cuba. In Baku, Horn was beaten by eventual gold medalist Everton Lopes of Brazil in the second round.
Arum reportedly wanted Pacquiao to face Horn in his hometown Down Under. He would liken Manny to the international sports ambassador and boxing "Greatest" Muhammad Ali who fought in many nations.
The octagenarian promoter is even planning of showing the Pacquiao-Horn on free television and not on pay-per-view. These two moves would downgrade the Pacquiao marketablity if he is aiming for a Mayweather rematch or other big name boxers.
But Arum would be benefited on the business aspect from a Pacquiao-Horn clash because both are Top Rank fighters. Pacquiao has been matched against Top Rank fighters in 11 out of his last 13 fights.
Horn's promoter Duco Events director Dean Lonergan will meet with Arum in Los Angeles to arrange the venue of the fight in Australia in what he projected as the biggest fight in the continent.
First, Horn is not in the same caliber as Crawford or Lomachenko. Jessie Vargas was even better than Horn because he was WBO welterweight champion when Manny fought him.
The Mexican-American Vargas was also the former WBA and IBO superlightweight champion. While Horn is the No. 2 WBO welterweight contender.
Vargas had fought and won over former IBO light welterweight champion Daniel Sarmiento, former WBA and IBO light welterweight Khabib Allakhverdiev, former WBA light welterweight champion Vivian Harris, former WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco and 2008 Beijing Olympian Saddam Ali.
And second, if the fight will be shown on free TV it will surely downgrade Pacquiao's marketability. His last free TV fight was in 2005 against Hector Velasquez. Horn is not so popular and has not fought outside the Australian continent.
Pacquiao was asking $20 million to face Crawford through Michael Koncz which Arum found to be too extravagant. However negotiations will still be ongoing when Arum comes to the Philippines. But fighting Horn on free TV will surely shortchange the eight-division world champion.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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