PACQUIAO-HORN IS PREPARATORY FOR CRAWFORD MATCH
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 07 Jan 2017
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum will meet with Duco Events director Dean Longergan next Tuesday to finalize a fight between Australian fighter Jeff Horn and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao proposed for April 23 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
In the event the match will push through as scheduled, it could serve as a preparatory bout for the much-talked about encounter of the fighting senator with Terence Crawford, the world's No. 5 pound-for-pound fighter by The Ring and WBC/WBO/Ring light welterweight champion. According to Arum the Pacquiao-Crawford clash will be deferred at least for the next six months.
Top Rank will be testing the untapped Australian market. Horn is the most popular fighter Down Under. The proposed venue of the fight is 52,000 seat Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane which when filled up can bring in the much needed revenue for Arum.
Staging the fight in the United States will be a losing proposition since Horn is a virtual unknown than Jessie Vargas whom Pacquiao fought last November with only 300,000 pay-per-view buys. What could not be gained from the US market could be compensated by the Aussie audience.
It would entail a lot if gamble for Arum however in the Australian continent where the popularity of boxing has been overtaken by the mixed martial arts boom. The well-known Australian boxers Vic Darchinyan and Michael Katsidis earned most of their big purses in America.
The only time boxing earned a lot of pay-per-views in Australia was during the Pacquiao-Mayweather megabout as it was worldwide. During that much-hyped clash, not only boxing enthusiasts watched the fight but as well as ordinary people who were intrigued by the much-ballyhooed bout.
Top Rank and Aussie promoters are capitalizing on the popularity of Pacquiao Down Under. They are hoping the Pacquiao-Horn scuffle at the Suncorp Stadium would attract more people to fill up the seating capacity.
The hometown fans of Horn plus the great Filipino community in Australia and the people who wants to see Pacquiao in flesh are expected to troop to the venue. They are also hoping the Aussie fans to patronize the fight in the event it will be shown on PPV. Another alternative would be to beam the bout on free television especially in America.
The much-publicized Pacquiao-Crawford tussle has many reasons to be postponed. Pacquiao is asking $20 million while Crawford is demanding $7 million. The Pac-Bud fight if held today will be a losing proposition and could not cope up with the $27 million purse with the last bout with Jessie Vargas generating only less PPV sales. The fight needs more hype and promo for it to ripen at the right time.
Both fighters are dangerous for each other. If the fight has to held earlier and if Pacquiao losses, he would retire prematurely. And if it is Crawford who would be defeated, he would lost his tag as PacMan's heir apparent as Top Rank's top moneymaker.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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