By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum says he has a deal in place for him to fight in July against Jeff Horn in Australia. Arum says it’s up to Pacquiao to accept the deal or not. If Pacquiao doesn’t agree to the fight, then Arum says he could be out of the ring until the fall. It’s unclear why Arum can’t make another fight for Pacquiao besides just the little known Horn, as you would assume that there are a lot of different options for him to fight.
Amir Khan would be one great option, but Arum has already ruled him out as a potential opponent for Pacquiao after the $38 million offer coming from UAE went up in smoke. Horn would be a great option for the recently beaten Jessie Vargas or Tim Bradley in my view. Would Vargas and Bradley say yes to a fight against Horn? I wonder. I wouldn’t be surprised if they would turn down a fight against Horn because it’s not one that would do much for their careers. That’s why it’s interesting that Arum is offering Horn as Pacquiao’s next opponent.
It seems to me that Horn needs to build his name more before fighting Pacquiao. Arum should stick Horn in with Errol Spence and see how well he does. I think Spence would take the fight with Horn for the right amount of money. It might not end well for Horn, but at least he’d have a name of sorts after he faces Spence.
Arum seems very determined to match Pacquiao against Jeff Horn despite what appears to be little interest on his part in taking that fight.
Pacquiao’s creation of a 4-figther list on his Twitter asking the boxing fans to pick his next opponent would seem like a tremendous hint that he’s not excited about the fight. Horn came in dead last in the voting in that 4-figther list. That obviously hasn’t stopped Arum from trotting him out once again as a potential opponent for Pacquiao following the Khan fight failing to happen.
If Horn can beat Pacquiao, he could become a big name in Australia. A win for Pacquiao over Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) is not something that will increase his status any. It’s a no-win situation for Pacquiao. If he beats Horn easily, boxing fans likely won’t care. If Pacquiao struggles to beat Horn, he’ll take huge criticism from fans, some of which may call him a shot fighter.
If Pacquiao loses to Horn, then it’ll be really bad. It would be nice if Arum had someone else for Pacquiao to fight instead of Horn for July. Lately, the guys that Arum has matched Pacquiao against him have been less than thrilling options. Pacquiao fought Jessie Vargas in his last fight in September. Pacquiao’s fight before that was a third fight against Tim Bradley. Those were both Top Rank fighters from Arum’s stable.
It’s unclear if Arum thinks he can turn Horn into a big star in the U.S. The chances of that happening are probably very low. The fact that Horn has been knocked down in his recent fights against 43-year-old Randall Bailey and 38-year-old Ali Funeka is a big indication that he’s not going to become another Golovkin type crossover star.
“We have a deal in place (with Horn), hopefully it will be in July,” Arum said to ringtv.com. “But I’m waiting to hear back. It’s up to (Pacquiao). He may decide to take off until the fall and then fight an American kid like Broner or Crawford or somebody like that.”
Did you notice how Arum mentioned Terence Crawford? That’s another fighter that Arum also promotes besides Horn. Adrien Broner isn’t one of Arum’s Top Rank fighters.
If Pacquiao turns down Horn and Crawford as his opponents, it’ll be up to Arum to find someone that he can fight. Does Arum keep Pacquiao on the shelf in that case or does he work with outside promoters to match him against someone that the boxing fans want to see him fight. I don’t know that Pacquiao is anymore interested in fighting Crawford than he is Jeff Horn. There are more popular fighters in boxing than Crawford and Jeff Horn.
Arum should be looking to match Pacquiao against Keith Thurman or the winner of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight. That would be something where Pacquiao could get the attention of the U.S boxing world rather a segment. Pacquiao-Horn would be good for Australia, but it wouldn’t create much interest in the U.S, which is where his pay-per-view buys come from. Putting Pacquiao in with Horn is a fight that would likely bring in very few PPV buys from the U.S. It might turn Horn into a star in Australia if he beats Pacquiao, but it wouldn’t do much for Manny.
“Khan made sense in the Mideast if they were coming with money, which I never believed they were,” Arum said to ringtv.com. “But other than the Mideast, an American opponent like a Broner or a Crawford would do a lot more business.”
Arum is interested in matching Pacquiao against Broner in the fall. That would be a good fight if he can get it made. It might bring in the best PPV numbers for Pacquiao since his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2015. Pacquiao’s last two fights against Vargas and Bradley brought in around 300,000 buys. Pacquiao is probably still capable of getting good PPV numbers if matched against popular fighters. Putting Pacquiao in with Bradley for fight No.3 was not a smart move. It might have made Bradley happy, but it was not a great move in terms of the arguably better money that could have been made if Arum had looked outside of his Top Rank stable to find an opponent for Pacquiao.
Pacquiao vs. Broner would obviously do better numbers for Pacquiao than a fight between him and Khan or Jeff Horn from the U.S. Khan hasn’t fought since he was knocked out by Saul Canelo Alvarez in May 2016, so obviously he wouldn’t be a good option for Pacquiao. But if all Arum is offering is Horn, then Khan suddenly seems like a great option. Is that all Arum can do is offer Pacquiao a fight against Jeff Horn repeatedly right now? How about Arum offering Pacquiao Thurman, Danny Garcia, Miguel Cotto or Canelo? I think a lot of boxing fans would much prefer to see Pacquiao fight one of those guys than the little known Horn.