Horn isn’t sure if Pacquiao is the one sending Tweets from his account

By Boxing News - 02/14/2017 - Comments

Image: Horn isn’t sure if Pacquiao is the one sending Tweets from his account

By Chris Williams: Unbeaten welterweight contender Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) doesn’t understand why WBO 147lb champion Manny Pacquiao has suddenly started sending Tweets from his Twitter account asking boxing fans to pick his next opponent from a list of four fighters. Horn thinks that it might not be Pacquiao who is in charge of his Twitter account, even though it’s a verified account.

For Pacquiao not to be the one sending out the tweets from a verified account, it would mean that it had to be hacked, because it’s a legitimate account. Of course, if Pacquiao wasn’t the one sending the Tweets, he would have spoken up by now to reassure the 28-year-old Horn that it’s not him sending the Tweets.

Pacquiao, 38, might have had a change of heart about him fighting Jeff Horn on April 23 instead of a popular fighter that the U.S boxing fans have heard of. It’s very unusual choice by Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum to select yet non-popular fighter after matching Pacquiao against Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley in his last two fights. Those were bad choices by Arum, and the low PPV numbers reflected that. Bradley was a good choice for the first two times that Arum matched him against Pacquiao, but when he made a third fight last year, it just seemed like a wrong-headed move that was destined for failure. Amir Khan was interested in facing Pacquiao at the time, but instead Arum went with Bradley.

“It’s very confusing and frustrating,” said Horn via the Courier Mail. “The fact that Pacquiao is now tweeting about different opponents is so annoying because we were under the impression that he had agreed to fight me on April 23. We don’t even know if it’s Pacquiao tweeting this stuff or if he’s given control of his page to someone else,” said Horn.

It wasn’t long ago that Pacquiao said he didn’t even know who Jeff Horn was despite Arum working on making the fight. It’s not surprising that Pacquiao is asking the fans to pick out an opponent.

Pacquiao also mentioned wanting to fight in the United Arab Emirates for his next fight. Horn and his promoters want the Pacquiao fight to take place in Brisbane, Australia. Arum seems to be on board with that idea, even though it would put the much more popular Pacquiao at a potential disadvantage.

Why would Pacquiao need to fight someone far less known than him in their own hometown? Why would Arum make that move? When Muhammad Ali was wrapping up his career, he was traveling around to different countries for fights, but he wasn’t fighting guys in their own countries. Ali was fighting guys like George Foreman in the Congo and Joe Frazier in the Philippines. Ali wasn’t giving home advantage to these fighters. Why is Arum giving a little known fighter like Horn the home advantage against Pacquiao? Horn hasn’t been a pro for more than four years. It’s not a huge Ali vs. Foreman fight.

Horn is a good basic fighter, but not one with the stature of a Foreman for the 147lb division. If Arum were to match Horn against Errol Spence, I would expect Horn to be obliterated within five rounds at the most. Horn is too easy to hit, and he goes down when hit hard. Randally Bailey 43, and the 38-year-old Ali Funeka knocked him down in his last two fights.

I think all these tweets are just mind games, a ploy for Pacquiao and his team to show me that they have all the power and they are calling the shots over the fight,” said Horn. “I just want to get in the ring and show Pacquiao my power.”

I don’t think the Tweets by Pacquiao is a ploy or a power trip to show who has the power. That’s not Pacquiao’s style. He doesn’t do stuff like that. Pacquiao’s decision to ask his followers on twitter to vote on his next opponent can only mean that he’s not sold on the Horn fight.

If Pacquiao doesn’t say anything now before the contract is signed for the April 23 fight against Horn, then he’ll be stuck with the fight. We already saw Pacquiao in two REALLY bad fights last year against Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley. Neither of those fights brought in a lot of PPV buys on HBO, and it’s easy to see why. Those were terrible choices by Arum, and I’m surprised he made those fights. Of course, Arum also put Pacquiao in with Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri, and you can argue that he blew it by making those fights, because those were not fights that did well on PPV.