Jeff Horn wants Mayweather in 2018

Boxingnews.com

By Chris Williams: WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) wants to get a big mega-fight in Australia against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2018, but he may be stuck with Terence Crawford. A rematch between the 29-year-old Horn and Manny Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) is the first order of business for the Australian fighter.

The rematch could take place in November or December between Horn and Pacquiao. In the meantime, Horn has set his sights a lot higher in dreaming about a fight against the 40-year-old Mayweather. The problem is Mayweather’s asking price for fights is 9 figures, and the $10 million that Pacquiao just received for fighting Horn on July 2 would be shy $90 million for Mayweather to have any interest in fighting the huge welterweight.

It’s unclear whether Mayweather would even agree to fight Horn in Australia, as it’s questionable whether he would want to take a risk of fighting outside of the U.S.

“I want the biggest fights I can get,” said Horn to the couriermail.com.au. “and Mayweather is the biggest. I realized my dream to become a world champ and now I want to cement my legacy in the sport by beating as many of the big names as I can.’’

Horn needs to be realistic in terms of the guys his promoters are capable of getting for him to fight. Here are the fighters that Horn can likely face:

– Manny Pacquiao

– Terence Crawford

– Jessie Vargas

– Konstantin Ponomarev

– Tim Bradley

– Carlos Ocampo

– Chris Van Heerden

– Miguel Cotto

Those are pretty much it as far as guys that Horn will likely be matched up with. The five guys on the list are from Arum’s Top Rank stable. My guess is Arum will have Horn exhaust most if not all of those fighters if possible. After that, I see Horn possibly rematches against them. It would be great if Arum expanded that list by looking to match Horn against these fighters:

– Errol Spence Jr.

– Keith Thurman

– Shawn Porter

– Adrien Broner

– Danny Garcia

– Lamont Peterson

– Lucas Matthysse

– Andre Berto

Horn still needs to fight Pacquiao in a rematch before he can start talking about fighting other guys like Mayweather. Horn’s co-promoter Bob Arum says a fight between Horn and Terence Crawford is a possibility. Arum would have his hands on the gear shifts of the promotion if he could make a fight between Crawford and Horn.

It’s a predictable move, as Crawford is likely going to move up in weight to the welterweight. Who else would Arum put him in with but Horn? It’s highly unlikely that Arum would look to do business with Al Haymon to match Crawford against WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time’ Thurman or IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. Besides, Crawford would likely lose to those guys due to them being such big punchers.

Crawford hasn’t fought any big punchers at 140. He was staggered by former featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa in their fight three years ago in 2014. Crawford wouldn’t beat Spence and Thurman by running around the ring for 12 rounds, sticking his tongue out at them. The judges aren’t going to give Crawford a win over popular welterweights if he’s unwilling to mix it up with them.

The stuff that Crawford has been doing at 140 won’t work against guys in the welterweight division. The biggest reason why Crawford won’t be effective against Thurman and Spence is because he wouldn’t have a size advantage over them like he’s been having against his opposition at 140. Crawford is usually the bigger guy than his opponents. He won’t be the bigger guy when he gets in there against Spence or Thurman, which is one of the reasons why I don’t see him ever fighting any of those guys.

“As far as Mayweather is concerned, he announced that he’s not fighting anymore after the McGregor thing, and I believe him,” said Arum to the couriermail.com.au. “As far as Crawford is concerned, we’ll see. Do I think Crawford is better than Horn? Probably. I think Crawford is one of the best fighters in the world, but you can’t count out a kid like Horn. Crawford will fight at least one more time this year. If Jeff Horn does not fight Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, Jeff Horn will fight anybody he said, and that could possibly be Crawford.”

There it is; Arum talking about wanting to match Horn against Crawford. I could see this coming from a mile away. The World Boxing Organization welterweight title that Horn currently has would be passed down to Crawford if he beats Horn. The WBO belt has been getting passed around lately by Arum’s Top Rank fighters.

These are the fighters that have held the WBO title since 2009:

– Jeff Horn – Top Rank/Duco Events

– Manny Pacquiao – Top Rank

– Jessie Vargas- Top Rank

– Tim Bradley – Top Rank

– Floyd Mayweather Jr – Mayweather Promotions

– Manny Pacquiao – Top Rank

– Tim Bradley – Top Rank

– Manny Pacquiao – Top Rank

– Miguel Cotto – Top Rank

If Arum makes that fight between Crawford and Horn, I don’t think it would be a good way to use up Horn. I think he’ll lose, and the fight won’t be a huge money fight like the one he wants against Mayweather.

Once the Pacquiao-Horn rematch is over with, if Horn comes out on top, Arum needs to try and put him in with one of the popular welterweights like Danny Garcia, Thurman or Spence. If they want to take some crazy risks, then Arum should reach out to Miguel Cotto, Saul Canelo Alvarez or Gennady “GGG” Golovkin to bring in a big name.

You can’t say that Horn doesn’t have the size to fight those guys. Horn looked like a middleweight inside the ring with Pacquiao on July 2 in their fight at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. The good thing that would come out of Horn fighting the likes of Cotto, Golovkin or Canelo is he wouldn’t take as much of a hit in terms of his reputation if he gets beaten by one of those guys. Those are good fighters, and they would be expected to win.

Horn would get a lot of attention in fighting them, and he could come back down to 147 and continue on. I don’t think it would be a good idea for Horn and his co-promoters at Duco Events to go along with the idea of fighting a mover like Crawford. Crawford doesn’t have the best set of wheels in the welterweight division. He would need to be able to chase Crawford around the ring for 12 rounds, and I can’t see him being able to do that.

Pacquiao was perfect for Horn, as he stood still and let him use his size to wear him down. Crawford would likely be running around the ring, avoiding Horn, and tying him up whenever he got near enough to throw punches. The money wouldn’t be good for that fight for Horn, and he would likely lose a decision. I don’t think it would be a good style match-up for Horn.

The guys that would give Crawford nightmares are Shawn Porter, Spence and Thurman. All those guys have the kind of power that would make things extremely hard on Crawford, because they would force him to run for 12 rounds. He’s not going to get a decision by running against those guys. These would be either Las Vegas or New York fights. They wouldn’t be fights that take place in Crawford’s home state of Nebraska.