Jeff Horn vs. Gary Corcoran possible for November

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow: Now that Manny Pacquiao has announced that he won’t be fighting for the remainder of 2017, it leaves WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) without an opponent for November.

Horn’s promoters at Duco Events are in the process of cutting a deal with #11 WBO Gary Corcoran (17-1,7 KOs) to step in and take the fight with Horn for November, according to Dan Rafael.

Duco Events is working with the Queensland government to have them assist in coming up with the money for the event, which is what they also did to help make the Pacquiao vs. Horn fight last July.

“No contracts have been sent out (to Corcoran) because the deal with the government is not completed. If it happens, Corcoran will be the opponent,” a source said to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com.

Corcoran, 26, is from London, England. He has wins over Lary Ekundayo, James Gorman, Danny Butler, Rick Slelton and Max Maxwell. Corcoran recently lost to Liam Williams by an 11th round knockout loss last year at 154. Corcoran moved up in weight from the welterweight division to take on the bigger and stronger Liam Williams. It was a size mismatch for the most part. Corcoran didn’t belong fighting a guy as big as Williams.

The fact that Duco Events is interested in having Jeff Horn defend against Corcoran can mean only one thing. They believe he can beat him. The fight wouldn’t get made if they felt there was a risk that Horn could lose to Corcoran. There’s too much money for Horn, 28, to make fighting Pacquiao next year. They need to keep him winning until that fight is made, and then see what happens from there.

With his lowly 39% knockout percentage, Corcoran isn’t much of a threat to knocking out Horn, which is good news because that’s seemingly the only chance he has of beating the Australian fighter. Corcoran isn’t going to outbox Horn. He doesn’t have that kind of boxing skills. Corcoran has 7 knockouts on his resume for his 6-year pro career, but those KOs have come against weak opposition and not against high quality fighters.

Horn’s co-promoters at Top Rank will likely look to wait until Horn fights Pacquiao in a rematch in 2018 before trying to put together a fight between the winner of that contest against unbeaten light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford, who is also promoted by Top Rank. That’s a fight that Top Rank wants to make.

Pacquiao is the one that will need to make up his mind whether he wants to continue fighting after the Horn fight. If Pacquiao beats Horn, then there will be a lot of pressure on him to face Crawford. Top Rank can still match Crawford against Horn even if he loses to Pacquiao in the rematch, but the fight won’t be nearly as big if he doesn’t get past Pacquiao in their rematch next year.