Manny Pacquiao to fight Jeff Horn on July 2

By Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz says that they are finalizing a deal for a fight against unbeaten Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) on July 2. Pacquiao and Horn’s promoter Bob Arum had given the 38-year-old Pacquiao a deadline of Thursday of this week to decide on whether he was going to agree to the fight with the 28-year-old Horn. If Pacquiao hadn’t agreed, then Arum said he might not fight again until November.

Pacquiao will be facing Horn in Brisbane, Australia at the Suncorps Stadium. It’s a 52,000 seat venue. Pacquiao will be the visiting fighter. It’s hard to believe that a fighter as popular as Pacquiao is now fighting in an obscure fighter’s hometown in Jeff Horn.

“Looks like” Pacquiao will fight Horn on July 2, said Koncz to Rappler.com. “We are finalizing the terms. [It] should be finalized by end of week,” said Koncz.

From outward appearances, Pacquiao is now the stepping stone for Horn instead of fellow Top Rank fighter Terence Crawford. If Horn beats Pacquiao, his career will take off, at least in Australia. Even if Horn loses to Pacquiao, if he can give him problems the way Daniel Jacobs gave Gennady Golovkin, it can still greatly enhance his boxing career. Pacquiao gains very little from the Horn fight, because he’s not widely known outside of Australia.

Earlier this week, Arum said this to the Manila Bulletin about Pacquiao having 2 days to decide on the Jeff Horn fight:

“They have to make a decision by Wednesday [Thursday in Manila],” said Arum . “If we can’ get a fight for him this July, we’ll look at November. Unless it’s a big fight, we are looking at Manny fighting outside the U.S,” said Arum.

Pacquiao is still a very popular fighter. Some boxing fans would like to know why Arum couldn’t find anyone else for Pacquiao to fight besides Jeff Horn? There are a lot of other top fighters in boxing that would likely leap at the chance to fight Pacquiao in July. One of them is Adrien Broner. He said this week that he would fight Pacquiao if the money is right.

If Pacquiao gets past Horn on July 2, his next fight is a predictable one against Terence Crawford in November. Arum also promotes Crawford. It would be nice to see Pacquiao having some actual choices for opponents aside from just 1 guy, which we’re seeing with Jeff Horn. Arum has been dialed into the Jeff Horn fight for months. There doesn’t appear to have been anyone else other than that guy. When Pacquiao created a 4-man poll recently on his Twitter account asking his boxing fans to select his next opponent, it was seen as him not being interested in fighting Horn. Incidentally, Horn came in last in the 4-man poll. He was the fighter that boxing fans least wanted to see Pacquiao facing next. But, Horn is reportedly co-promoted by Arum, which made him a logical choice for his next fight. Amir Khan was selected at No.1 in Pacquiao’s 4-fighter poll and Terence Crawford next to last. With Pacquiao fighting Horn, it’ll be his third consecutive fight against one of Arum’s Top Rank fighters.

Pacquiao’s PPV numbers for his last 2 fights have been low compared to during his best years. What we don’t know is whether this is because of the match-making that is being done by Arum or because boxing fans are losing interest in Pacquiao. His last 2 fights were against Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley. Fighting Bradley the first 2 times made sense, but it seemed like a move destined for failure when Pacquiao was matched against him a third time. There was no reason for the fight, as the boxing public had already seen that Pacquiao was the better fighter in the first 2 fights. Pacquiao being matched against Jessie Vargas was another questionable move. Why put Pacquiao in with a fighter that isn’t popular and who had recently been easily beaten by Bradley. Pacquiao’s drop in popularity could have more to do with the match-making that’s being done for him rather than in him really losing fans. Putting _Pacquiao in with Jeff Horn another very questionable move. It’s that won’t likely attract interest in the U.S from the fans there. Why Pacquiao has agreed to the fight with Horn is unknown.

You have to wonder whether Pacquiao considered where his career would be when he re-upped with Top Rank in 2014.

The other fight that Koncz and Pacquiao had been working on against Amir Khan for the UAE fell through recently. That was a fight where there was a large $38 million offer.