By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao and his adviser Michael Koncz are saying that his next fight in April will be in the United Arab Emirates when they face unbeaten #2 IBF, #2 WBO Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs). However, this news is now what Horn’s promoters at Duco Events are going by. They’ve been working with Pacquiao’s promoters at Top Rank, and they still believe the Pacquiao-Horn fight is going to be taking place in April at the Suncorps Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
The question is why isn’t Pacquiao and Koncz on the same page as Top Rank for this fight? Unless Pacquiao wants to put his foot down and insist on the Horn fight taking place in the UAE, he’ll likely be facing Horn in Brisbane, Australia.
If Pacquiao is going to get assertive right now with Top Rank, then he should probably insist on them finding him a popular opponent that the casual boxing fans in the U.S have heard of before, because a fight against Horn is going to be an awfully tough sell in the U.S. Unless there’s a ton of money to be made from the Australian PPV audience, it might be better for Pacquiao to try and face someone like Adrien Broner or Danny Garcia.
“See you in UAE for my next fight. #TeamPacquiao,” said Pacquiao on his social media site.
Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan at Duco Events told Fight News that Top Rank is the promoter for Pacquiao
“We are nearing completion of the deal, and as far as I’m concerned Top Rank is the exclusive promoter of Manny Pacquiao and until Top Rank tells me otherwise we shall continue to try and get this deal done,” said Lonergan to Fightnews.com. “Duco have been working with Top Rank over the past three months to have the fight in Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.”
The question is how can Pacquiao be in the dark seemingly about where the fight with Horn is taking place? Another question is why would Pacquiao ever agree to fighting a guy as good as Horn in Australia rather than in a neutral country? Who came up with the idea for Pacquiao to give home advantage to an a little known fighter like Jeff Horn? He’s obscure to the casual boxing fans in the U.S obviously.
Did Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank come up with the idea to have Pacquiao fight Horn in Australia? If so, why would Arum agree to something like that? After all these years as a top A-side fighter, why would Pacquiao want to give up his advantage to a little known fighter like Horn? Is the money worth it for Top Rank to have Pacquiao fight in Horn’s home country?
Couldn’t Pacquiao fight someone for equal or more money in the U.S where he would have the fans on his side? I don’t understand the reasons behind Pacquiao fighting Horn, and I don’t understand why he would fight him in Australia rather than in either a neutral venue or one that favors him. Hasn’t Pacquiao earned that after all these years as a top fighter? If I was promoting Pacquiao, I would at the very least pick a venue that would have more of his own boxing fans showing up to see him than in his opponent. Unless I missed something, I think Pacquiao is a lot more popular than Horn worldwide.
Obviously, a fight between Pacquiao and Horn wouldn’t feel a stadium in the U.S. If Top Rank REALLY wants the Pacquiao-Horn fight to take place for some reason, it probably will need to take place in Australia in order to bring the boxing fans in to sell tickets. But I don’t know why Pacquiao isn’t fighting guys like Adrien Broner, Amir Khan, Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman, Kell Brook or Saul Canelo Alvarez. Those would be fights that would bring in a lot of fans, and likely sell pay-per-view buys on HBO.