By Eric Baldwin:Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says he’s finalizing the contracts for Manny Pacquiao to fight Jeff Horn on July 2 in Brisbane, Australia. The deal is agreed to, and now all Arum needs to do is complete the contracts, according to Dan Rafael. This is a fight that will introduce Horn to the U.S boxing fans, as many of them have never seen him fight before or even heard of him.
Some of the hardcore fans in the U.S might have seen Horn’s fights against 43-year-old Randall Bailey and 38-year-old Ali Funeka recently. They both knocked Horn down in the fight. In fairness to Horn, he dominated both fights. He was caught by both guys.
Amir Khan mentioned recently as an option for Pacquiao, but the deal never happened because the money wasn’t there for it to be staged.
“We’re working out the final arrangements,” Arum said to Rafael at ESPN.com “Right now we don’t have the deal in place but we’re down the home stretch. The fight is agreed to and we’re working on the contracts.”
This is a questionable move by Arum to have Pacquiao fighting outside of the U.S against a fighter in Australia. If Arum pipes the fight into the U.S and puts it on PPV, he might have very low PPV numbers. It’s unknown what the overall objective is behind Arum’s match-making for Pacquiao nowadays. Matching Pacquiao against guys from his own promotional company would seem like a move to increase the future marketability of Arum’s other fighters. If that’s the objective behind Pacquiao fighting Horn, then it’s a smart move by Arum.
I don’t think it’s a great fight for Pacquiao though. He’s ending his career with a whimper instead of a bang by facing guys like Horn, Jessie Vargas and Tim Bradley instead of fighters that are gaining more of an audience in the U.S like Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.
There’s a good chance Pacquiao could lose to Horn. Pacquiao looked pretty bad in his last match against Jessie Vargas last September. Pacquiao won the fight, but he was hit a lot and he made a mediocre champion look better than he was. If this is the end for Pacquiao, Arum might have chosen the wrong fight for him to maximize revenue. If Pacquiao could be matched against someone like Adrien Broner, or Keith Thurman, he might generate some real money. Those guys aren’t in Arum’s Top Rank stable though. The 85-year-old Arum has mostly matching Pacquiao against his own fighters over the last 8 years.