Pacquiao to fight in July and November, Jeff Horn likely next

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum says he plans on wrapping up negotiations this week for a fight in July. Pacquiao will be fighting in July and November, according to Arum. He didn’t say who the opponent will be for July, but it looks like Australian Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) will be the guy that Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) will be facing next.

“We’re going to wrap it up this week and probably have a fight for him [Pacquiao] in July and then a fight in November,” said Arum to esnewsreporting.com.

“Broner is a good kid, and he has tremendous confidence in a Pacquiao-Broner fight,” said Arum. “The problem is his idea of what the fight will do is what I wish will happen. But I as a businessman, I can’t guarantee on that basis. I would hope that he’s right on those tremendous numbers. But with that being the case, he has a reasonable guarantee and then eat big on the upside,” said Arum.

It’s very doubtful that Pacquiao vs. Broner will bring in huge PPV numbers at this point. I think Pacquiao’s popularity has been eroded with his last two fights against Bradley and Vargas. I think that was a huge mistake on Arum’s part in matching him against those guys. I see Arum continuing along that line by possibly matching Pacquiao against Jeff Horn in July. I see that fight eroding Pacquiao’s popularity, especially if he loses or struggles to win.

The casual boxing fans, who have never seen Horn, will wonder why Pacquiao had problems against him. Horn does not look all that special. He’s just big. If Pacquiao has problems with Horn’s size and youth, and loses or doesn’t look good, then that might hurt Pacquiao’s future PPV numbers for when/if he faces Amir Khan or Adrien Broner in November. That’s why it’s not a good idea for Arum to match Pacquiao against Horn. Pacquiao has already had back to back dud opponents in Bradley and Vargas. Arum should be looking to change things up by giving the boxing public someone that they would at least be slightly interested in seeing Pacquiao fight. Pacquiao should be facing Broner, Khan or Danny Garcia for his July fight.

Arum didn’t come right out and say that the 28-year-old Jeff Horn is going to be Pacquiao’s next opponent, but when asked if the Australian fighter would be the guy that faces Pacquiao, Arum said “We’re going to wrap it up this week.” It won’t be surprising if Horn is the next opponent for Pacquiao, because Arum has been working on that fight for some time. He seems to really want that match. It’s unclear if it’s because he’s Horn’s co-promoter or because he feels it’s a winnable fight for Pacquiao. It’s a fight that could bring in better money for Pacquiao from the Australian market than what he could get from the U.S market.

Arum spoke last year of wanting to match Horn against Jessie Vargas or Tim Bradley before eventually putting him in with Pacquiao. Why Arum gave up on the idea of matching Horn against Vargas or Bradley is what I’d like to know. Did those fighters turn down a fight with Horn? It’s too bad that Arum didn’t match Horn against one of those two guys, because it would make the Pacquiao-Horn fight at least a little more palatable for the U.S boxing fans. Right now, it’s not a good fight between Pacquiao and Horn. Of course, Pacquiao’s last two fights were bad ones against Bradley and Vargas. Neither of them brought in a lot of PPV buys, and that’s really not surprising because there was no demand for that fight. Just as there was no demand for Pacquiao fighting Chris Algieri, Brandon Rios and Joshua Clottey in the past. Arum still made those fights. In hindsight, you can argue that it was a mistake, because Pacquiao’s PPV numbers for all of those fights weren’t good compared to in his better match-ups.