Jeff Horn wants Mayweather fight

By Boxing News - 07/03/2017 - Comments

Image: Jeff Horn wants Mayweather fight

By Allan Fox: Not satisfied with only getting a possible rematch with 38-year-old Manny Pacquiao, newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn now says he wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. as well. Just why Mayweather would want to fight a guy like Horn is the big question.

Pacquiao’s payday for the Horn fight last Saturday was $10 million. If all Mayweather can hope for is a similar number fighting Horn, then a fight between them is not going to happen. Mayweather will want 10 times the amount Pacquiao received.

The Australian PPV audience isn’t big enough for Mayweather to make huge money. Mayweather could make Pacquiao money, but not his usual asking price.

Horn, 29, used a combination of huge size and roughhouse tactics to beat Pacquiao by the scores of 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113. The decision wasn’t a popular one in the U.S, as many the boxing fans thought Pacquiao did more than enough to deserve the victory. Top celebrities and athletes also felt that Pacquiao should have been given the victory

Here is the short list of the celebrities that saw Pacquiao winning:

– Samuel L. Jackson

– Aaron Rodgers

– Dion Waiters

– Kobe Bryant

– Mike Biller

– Marlon Wayans

– Lennox Lewis

After the way Pacquiao lost a controversial 12 round unanimous decision to Horn last Saturday night in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia, it’s highly unlikely that Mayweather would like to receiver similar treatment.

Mayweather isn’t a knockout puncher by any means. If the fight went to the scorecards, we could see Mayweather losing in the same way that Pacquiao did. Other than fighting Horn in Australia, there’s no point in taking the fight, because Mayweather vs. Horn would not sell in the U.S. The casual fans have no clue who Horn is in the U.S.

“We’re serious. We want the fight,” said Horn. “He’s an old guy as well, he’s over 40. They all laughed when I was meant to fight Pacquiao and said it wouldn’t last three rounds. Why not get in there with someone like Mayweather?”

I don’t think Mayweather would want to fight Horn and get roughed up in the same way that Pacquiao was. If there was a referee that would work the fight that was able and willing to control the roughhouse tactics of Horn, then it might be a fight that Mayweather would consider. Still, it’s not a fight that would be big enough for Mayweather to make $100 million.

For Mayweather to make that kind of money, he would need to fight someone that would bring in PPV buys in the U.S in high numbers. Jeff Horn is invisible in the U.S other than boxing fans that saw his fight with Pacquiao last Saturday. Mayweather vs. Horn would likely bring in similar PPV numbers as Mayweather’s fight against Andre Berto. That fight did 400,000 buys. Mayweather wouldn’t be able to make his minimum $100 million fighting Horn. That would be the deal breaker.

Pacquiao landed 2 times the amount of punches Horn did in the fight. Pacquiao landed 182 punches for a connect percentage of 32. Horn landed 92 for a connect percentage of 15. Looking at the stats, it’s very hard to view Horn as the winner.

A lot of boxing fans wondered why Horn was allowed to get away with so much roughhouse tactics by Horn. The referee was letting Horn rough Pacquiao up without warning and taking points off. Horn would lower his head and ram Pacquiao in this face. It looked like it was part of Horn’s game. The result was Pacquiao suffered 2 bad cuts, and he looked like a bloody mess.

“If Floyd Mayweather wanted to fight Jeff Horn, I’m sure we’d make it in a heartbeat,” said Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan said. “Floyd Mayweather is the biggest fight out there for anybody and for a welterweight who just beat Manny Pacquiao, one of the few people to have done it, why wouldn’t you call out Floyd Mayweather?”

Horn and Lonergan might as well start calling out Conor McGregor as well, because they’ve got about as much chance of getting Mayweather to accept the fight as they do with McGregor. It looks good for Horn to name drop all the top fighters in boxing so he can get as much attention as possible right. Horn has already called out Errol Spence Jr. and Keith Thurman. Those are fights that would likely never happen in this life time, as Horn is co-promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank.

I don’t see Arum being willing to work with Spence and Thurman’s management for a fight. Two names that Horn hasn’t called out yet are Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. I’m still waiting for Horn to call them out as well just to have his name mentioned in the same breath as them.

As big as Horn was last Saturday, he might as well be calling out GGG and Canelo, because he looks about as big as them. I don’t think there’s much size difference between Horn and Canelo and Golovkin. Horn might be a little lighter by 5 to 10 pounds, but he’s very close to being the same weight size. At 5’9”, Horn is a little taller than Canelo, who is 5’8”. Canelo is listed at 5’9”, but he looked to be the same exact height as the 5’8” Mayweather and 5’8” Amir Khan when he fought them.

The celebrities thought Pacquiao was robbed last Saturday in the Horn fight.

“This is what’s wrong with boxing,” said Lennox Lewis. “Horn was very game but I’m hard pressed to see how he could have won that fight by any stretch.”

Former NFL football player Deon Sanders also wasn’t in agreement with the decision for the fight.
“Classy Manny Pacquiao, classy. You’re the better man than many of us,” said Deon Sanders on his Twitter. “I would’ve gone off after that mess. #Truth.”

NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers had this to say about the results of the Pacquiao vs. Horn fight:

“Boxing is a joke, and it proves it again tonight. Are you kidding me with those scorecards? #joke. #rigged.”

Actor Marlon Wayans also didn’t agree with the Pacquiao-Horn decision. He says he’s no longer going to be following boxing after seeing the Pacquiao vs. Horn fight. Here’s what Wayans said:

“Dear boxing, this is an atrocity. What fight were the judges watching? This fight was an obvious easy Pacquiao win. This was crooked! I have been a boxing fan my entire life, but NO LONGER. I am done. If you have the balls to cheat is on free TV how can I ever trust you with a PPV. This was bull [expletive]. Manny was cheated! F—k this sport.”

I wonder how many boxing fans the sport lost with the result of the Pacquiao and Horn fight? What was especially bad about the fight was the fact that it was shown on free television on ESPN. That meant boxing fans were exposed to the Pacquiao-Horn fight than what it would have been had it been televised on HBO PPV. Normally that would be a good thing if the fight had ended without controversy.

Unfortunately the scoring of Pacquiao’s fight with Horn left a lot of boxing fans feeling like the Filipino fighter was ripped off. When you look at the way that Horn was allowed to rough up Pacquiao for 12 rounds without losing points, it’s not all together surprising that the fans felt that he was robbed of a win.

Pacquiao losing the fight to Horn was actually a good deal for him and his promoters at Top Rank. The reason why is it gives Pacquiao his best chance for another good payday. He made $10 million for his fight against Horn, which was probably double what he made for his last fight against Jessie Vargas. Pacquiao is no longer making $20 million per fight any longer. Those days are gone.

If Pacquiao had moved on from fighting Horn, he would have been likely stuck fighting Top Rank stable fighter Konstantin Ponomarev. That’s who Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum had spoken of recently of wanting to match him against next. I don’t know why, but Arum isn’t interested in matching Pacquiao against the best welterweights in the division in Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia and Errol Spence.

A rematch for Pacquiao against Horn will give him another big payday that he wouldn’t have gotten if he’d fought Ponomarev or another one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters. Arum co-promotes Jeff Horn. It’s a good deal that Pacquiao is fighting Horn again. You can bet that there will be a trilogy fight between Pacquiao and Horn that will be taking place in the first half of 2018. That’s my prediction. I don’t see Arum letting Pacquiao move on without him fighting Horn at least 3 times minimum.

I could be wrong, but I don’t think I will be. There’s money for Pacquiao to keep fighting Horn from the Australian side. As long as the money is there, I see Arum matching Pacquiao against Horn over and over again. I see it as a given that Pacquiao fights Horn 3 times.

I’m not sure whether the Australian public would be able to stomach a fourth and fifth fight between them without losing interest, but we’ll have to see. If the Pacquiao-Horn fight is still making huge money after 3 fights, then I definitely see Arum making a fourth fight between them.

The Horn-Pacquiao rematch could happen by the end of the year as long as both guys are recovered from the cuts they received in their fight last Saturday night at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.

Mayweather is not going to be in the picture for Horn in the future. The only big name fighter Horn will be facing in the foreseeable future is Pacquiao.