Both boxer’s will meet at a sold out Suncorp Stadium on July 2. / AFP PHOTO / Patrick HAMILTON /
(Eagle News) — Filipino boxing great Manny Pacquiao faces Australia’s Jeff Horn in Brisbane, Australia today, with many boxing analysts already expecting a win by the Filipino boxer-senator who is making his first title defense of the World Boxing Organization’s (WBO) welterweight championship.
Pacquiao won his WBO welterweight belt after defeating Jessie Vargas via unanimous decision in November last year, and thereby winning the WBO title for the third time.
With his fight with Horn, ranked as the # 2 welterweight by the WBO, Pacquiao will be looking for his first knockout win since 2009 when he defeated Puerta Rico’s Miguel Cotto via technical knockout in the 12th round (November) and before that England’s Ricky Hatton who was knocked out on the second round in May that year.
Pacquiao is widely considered as one of the greatest boxers of all time, and the first and only eight division world champion. He had won 11 major world titles and is the first boxer to win the lineal title in five different weight classes.
He is also the third boxer in history to win major world titles in three of the original eight weight divisions of boxing — flyweight, featherweight, welterweight– which are also known as the glamor divisions.
Pacquiao tipped the scales at 66.1 kg (146 pounds) and Horn came in at 66.3 kg (146 pounds) at the official weigh-in.
Unbeaten Horn, a former schoolteacher, said he was ready for the biggest moment of his boxing life.
He has only fought 17 times for 16 wins (11 knockouts) and one draw, which is way below Pacquiao’s 67 fights, with 59 wins — 38 of them by knockout — six losses and two draws.
Pacquiao, Horn’s toughest fight
Horn has not yet faced someone as the same caliber as Pacquiao, and this is considered his toughest fight.
The 29-year old Australian boxer, is an orthodox fighter, and is nine years younger than the 38-year old Pacquiao who is a southpaw.
He is new in the professional boxing bout, having made his debut only in March 2013 when he defeated New Zealand boxer Jody Allen by a second round technical knockout. In April last year, he faced former two-division world champion Randall Bailey. Horn won by TKO after Bailey refused to get up from his corner before Round 8.
WBO ranked him the #2 welterweight in the world after his October 21, 2016 fight with German Rico Mueller whom he also defeated by TKO in Round 9.
After dropping Bailey in the second round, Horn was knocked down in the third round. Horn won by TKO after Bailey refused to get up from his corner before Round 8.
Horn also defeated former IBO welterweight champion Ali Funeka on December 10, 2016, stopping him in the sixth round.
Pacquiao will face Horn at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane in front of an estimated record crowd of 60,000.
The Pacquiao camp throughout this week has said it is anticipating a “short and sweet” win over Horn, a 2012 Australian Olympian, before an expected 50,000 crowd at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The Pacquiao team has spoken of setting up another showdown with the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather, who outpointed ‘Pac-Man’ in the “Fight of the Century” two years ago.
Pacquaio camp chasing Mayweather rematch
“We’re chasing a rematch with Floyd Mayweather and we know he has to score a spectacular knockout win over Jeff Horn if that’s going to happen,” Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said.
“I’m looking for a big win in Brisbane so we can go on to bigger and better things.
“I’ve been looking for a big knockout from him for a long time now and I think you’re going to see it in this fight.”
Pacquiao has beaten some of the best — Oscar de la Hoya, Shane Mosley, Ricky Hatton, Jesse Vargas — while 29-year-old Horn is stepping up in class substantially in the WBO title fight.
Pacquiao, who is also a senator in the Philippines, regained the welterweight world title belt he lost to Mayweather when he knocked Jesse Vargas down in the second round and cruised to a unanimous decision in November.
He will be making his first defence against Horn after a big-money fight with British boxer Amir Khan in the United Arab Emirates fell through earlier this year. (Eagle News Service with an Agence France Presse report)