HORN LEAVING NO STONE UNTURNED IN PREPARATION FOR PACQUIAO FIGHT
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 18 Apr 2017
While World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao has yet to start training extensively, the camp of his Australian challenger Jeff Horn is leaving no stone unturned in its preparation for the former schoolteacher?s titular duel with the Filipino reigning 147-pound titlist set July 2 at the 55,000-seat Suncorp Arena in Brisbane.
Reports from down under had it that Horn?s trainer Glenn Rushton is seeking Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion Vasyl Lomachenko to be his ward?s main sparring partner to approximate the sizzling speed and ferocious firepower the Filipino icon is expected to dish out.
Not to be outdone, Horn?s promoters Duco Events are also talking to world-ranked welterweight Errol Spence to, likewise, help Horn in the biggest fight of his career and in Australian boxing history.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, whose Government is helping finance Pacquiao?s $10 million purse, declared that ?up to 55,000 boxing fans from across Australia and the world are expected to fill Suncorp Stadium to see the local teacher taking on one of the biggest names in boxing history, on his home turf?.
?The match is a highlight on the state?s major events calendar,? Palaszczuk said as quoted by Courier Mail?s Grantlee Kieza.
Like Pacquiao, Lomachenko and Spence are left-handers presenting a whole different attack to right-handed (orthodox) boxers such as Horn,? Rushton said.
?I would dearly love to get Lomachenko to work with Jeff because like Pacquiao he is so fast and razor sharp,? said Rushton, who has a stable of stars training at the home gym of his Stretton mansion.
?Pacquiao boxes with an intensity unlike most fighters but Lomachenko is a ring genius. I want guys who are lighter than Jeff (67kg) as sparring partners so they can simulate the same sort of speed and movement that has made Pacquiao such a star.
?Lomachenko would be much more suitable to prepare for Pacquiao than Errol Spence who is more of a power-puncher,? Horn?s trainer assessed.
Horn, for his part disclosed that he will resume training hard next week adding that he had actually started preparation even before the first aborted showdown with the eight-division belt-owner, which w originally set April 23, was announced
?I?ll now be training 4-5 hours a day plus doing video work, watching Pacquiao?s recent fights, ? he said.
?It will be the hardest training of my life because of the calibre of Manny and the importance of this fight but I believe in my trainer and he believes in me and I?m going into the ring at Suncorp to take Pacquiao?s world title.?
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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