Pacquiao rates Jeff Horn as “tough opponent”

By Allan Fox: Manny Pacquiao isn’t looking past his mandatory challenger Jeff Horn this Saturday night on July 1 in their fight on ESPN at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. Pacquiao will in foreign territory, fighting in front of a large crowd of Horn’s boxing fans. There will be over 50,000 fans crowing the Suncorp Stadium.

It should atmosphere, which Pacquiao usually thrives in. Pacquiao-Horn will be televised on free TV in a non-PPV fight. For Pacquiao to go from being a top PPV star in boxing to now fighting on free television, you have to wonder whether he’s being put in with the right opposition by his promoter. Pacquiao is capable of so much more with the right match-making.

Pacquiao will be battling the very tough and unbeaten Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs), who has never tasted defeat as he’s marched through the first 17 fights of his career.

There’s been nobody that has really given Horn any kind of a test. To be sure, Horn was knocked down by ring veterans Randall Baily and Ali Funeka, but those were flash knockdowns. Horn wasn’t hurt. He got up off the deck to dominate and stop the two old lions Bailey and Funeka. Horn is now fighting another old lion in Pacquiao, who will be turning 39 in December.

Pacquiao fights a lot younger than his age though, so it’s not going to be a fight where Horn can count on winning based on the Filipino star’s advanced age. For Horn to beat Pacquiao, he’s going to need to impose his size and power on Pacquiao. Horn’s size is his best asset. He’s a big guy at 5’9” and is one of the bigger welterweights in the division. Errol Spence, 5’9”, and Horn are two of the biggest top fighters in the welterweight division. Pacquiao is just 5’6 ½”, and he’s going to need to use his speed and boxing ability to deal with Horn’s size and his punching power.

Horn is a very good puncher. He’s always been an excellent puncher from day one dating back to his Olympic experience. Horn has the power to plant Pacquiao on the deck if he lands cleanly.

Pacquiao sees the 29-year-old Horn as a good fighter that brings a toughness element to his game. Pacquiao likes the idea of fighting an aggressive fighter, because he’s mostly done well against those types of guys in the past. It obviously doesn’t mean much now, however, as it’s been many years since Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) fought an aggressive fighter that was still in his prime.

The last time fight in which Pacquiao fought an aggressive prime fighter was in his 2012 contest against Juan Manuel Marquez. Pacquiao gave it a good effort, but was knocked cold in the 6th round. Since that fight, Pacquiao has fought Tim Bradley twice, Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Jessie Vargas. None of them were really aggressive. Bradley mostly boxed, and Rios was just too slow. If Rios had mean intentions, he was too slow to carry them out against the blazing fast and powerful Pacquiao.

“I will be going home as world champion,” said Pacquiao in arriving to Australia. “In all my years of boxing, I have never been as motivated and fired up as this fight.”

It’s probably a little easier for Pacquiao to be “motivated” when he’s facing someone that is more or less the ideal opponent for him in 29-year-old school teacher Jeff Horn. This is someone that is on paper WAY out of Pacquiao’s class when it comes to his talent. Horn has not been really tested since turning pro in 2012.

The talent and ability is there with Horn, who fought in the 2012 Olympics for Australia. What isn’t there is the needed experience for Horn to do well in this fight. The promoters for Horn should have started matching him against contenders a year or two ago, because he’s a guy with Olympic experience. Nowadays, fighters with Olympic quality experience aren’t brought along at a glacial pace the way we’ve seen with Horn. He’s been fighting mostly in New Zealand since 2014.

Horn’s recent wins have come against Ali Funeka, Rico Mueller, Randall Bailey, Ahmed El Mousaoui, Alfredo Rodolfo Blanco, Victor Plotnikov and Richmon Djarbeng. Those are guys that you would be perfect for someone with no Olympic experience, but for someone like Horn, it’s just been a lot of wasted time with him. Horn was ready to start facing high quality opposition right out of the gate in 2012. Having him burn through 5 years of his career against weak opposition has done nothing but age him to the point where he’s almost 30 now and still has never faced a quality opponent.

Now all of a sudden, Horn’s promoters are putting him in with Pacquiao without any step up competition to get him ready for the fight. This is truly a sink or swim type of fight for Horn in his boxing career. Horn has a chance to win due to his youth, size and power, but he’s going to need to adapt quickly inside the ring to Pacquiao’s talent, which is far and away above the likes that Horn has been matched against by his careful promoters.

“My team is very happy with my preparation,” said Pacquiao. “I’m so thankful for this great opportunity to be here in Australia and fight here, and the warm welcome of the people here,” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao hasn’t tasted defeat since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in their “Fight of the Century” in 2015. Pacquiao came back from that loss to beat Tim Bradley in fight No.3 last year and then Jessie Vargas. Those were a couple of good wins, but neither of those guys have the pop in their punches that Jeff Horn possesses.

Pacquiao is going to have to handle Horn’s power if he wants to win this fight. if he gets hit squarely by the Australian knockout artist, it could be an early night for him. Horn’s power is clearly better than the likes of Bradley, Vargas, Mayweather, Algieri and Marquez. Horn doesn’t possess the hand speed that Bradley and Mayweather possess.

Horn is about as fast as Algieri and Marquez. That could be bad news for Pacquiao, because for him to win this fight, he’s going to need to be able to take getting hit hard a certain amount of times if he can’t knockout Horn early. The longer the fight goes, the better it is for Horn. His power shots could force Pacquiao to fight conservatively. If Pacquiao decides he’s going to jump on Horn, there could be a problem for the Filipino fighter.

Pacquiao will likely be attempting to knockout Horn, as he’s not had a knockout since his 12th round stoppage victory over Miguel Cotto in 2009. That was a grueling fight for Pacquiao, as was his next fight after that one against Joshua Clottey. Pacquiao absorbed some really big shots in both fights despite dominating both guys.

Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach wants to see him knockout Horn. Of course, Roach always wants Pacquiao to knockout his foes, but he’s not the one that has to take the power shots needed for Pacquiao to score knockouts. It’s not easy for someone as small as Pacquiao to get knockouts.

Pacquiao started his boxing career out as a light flyweight in 1995, and he’s slowly moved from division to division until arriving at welterweight in 2008 in his fight against Oscar De La Hoya. In Pacquiao’s 14 fights in the 147 pound division, he’s only scored 2 knockdowns. Some boxing fans think there’s something with Pacquiao that he stopped knocking guys out after his TKO victory over Cotto. The likely real reason for Pacquiao’s dry spell of knockouts is he’s not a true welterweight. Pacquiao would be better off fighting at lightweight at 135 or even super featherweight at 130. If Pacquiao were fighting in those divisions, he would be scoring knockouts like he used to, because his punching power would go much further. The one problem with Pacquiao fighting in those weight classes is the lack of money fights. There are only a small handful of big names at super featherweight and lightweight. However, Pacquiao might be better off if he did move back down to 130 or 135, because his promoter Bob Arum seems to be focusing on putting him in mostly with his own fighters from his Top Rank stable.

There’s not many big names for Pacquiao to fight with the way he’s being matched by Arum. If Pacquiao turns down a fight with Arum’s guy Terence Crawford, then it’s difficult to know where the 85-year-old promoter takes him. It might be better for Pacquiao to move down in weight than to stay where he’s at in the 147lb division.

“I think this is one of the biggest crowds that I’m going to fight to. I love the fans shouting and cheering for me, or for Horn. I like that, it’s exciting,” said Pacquiao.

It’s interesting that Pacquiao is so excited about his fight against the little known Jeff Horn. A lot of fighters wouldn’t be so pleased with this match-up. Mayweather would likely have never considered fighting a lesser known guy like Horn. Mayweather promotes himself though. He doesn’t have a promoter that would encourage him to fight Horn. Mayweather appears to be much more strategic when it comes to his own match-making. It’s nice that Pacquiao isn’t upset that his career is grinding down fighting guys like Horn and Jessie Vargas instead of the popular fighters.