By William Mackay: Despite his advanced age, 38-year-old Manny Pacquiao is looking blazing fast and quite powerful in a recent workout this week in preparing for his July 2 fight against Jeff Horn at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia. In the video on his instagram, Pacquiao is seen working out with trainer Buboy Fernandez. The speed and the power of Pacquiao’s punches are extraordinary, as there aren’t any welterweights in the division right now with the speed that Pacquiao still has.
With Floyd Mayweather Jr. gone into retirement, Pacquiao is the top fighter in the welterweight division. Pacquiao is the last man standing. Success seems to have driven into retirement.
This video of Pacquiao has to be seen as bad news for the 29-year-old Horn, because he’s not going to be able to deal with Pacquiao’s hand speed in this fight. He’s too fast. Horn is 2012 Olympian from Australia, which is impressive in itself. However, Horn didn’t fight anyone with Pacquiao’s talent to get into the Olympics, and he didn’t fight anyone as good as Pacquiao during or after the Olympics. Horn is just a good basic fighter that is going to be out of his league when he gets inside the ring with Pacquiao.
The video Pacquiao working out showed that Jeff Horn better work on his boxing skills because he’s not going to be able to deal with fighter this good. Horn is going to need to get on his bike on July 2 if he wants to last against Pacquiao. This fight could turn out to be a lot like Pacquiao’s fight against Chris Algieri in 2014. That wasn’t even a fight.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is committed to making a fight between him and WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Terence Crawford. If Pacquiao gets past Horn, Arum will look to make the Pacquiao-Horn fight next. Arum got his way in Pacquiao fighting Horn next. That was a fight that Arum wanted. Pacquiao seemed to drag his feet on the idea of fight Horn, as he attempted to put together a fight against Amir Khan, which Arum seemed cool on. Pacquiao’s fight against Horn should be able to give up a good chance to see how much he has left in the tank. If Pacquiao struggles to beat Horn or if he loses, then he might need to consider retirement. That would probably make his 85-year-old promoter Bob Arum unhappy, because Pacquiao would be retired before Arum has had a chance of matching hm against Terence Crawford. Pacquiao-Horn is not going to be a money maker in the U.S. Pacquiao-Crawford should be able to bring in at least 400,000 buys on PPV.
Pacquiao also created a 4-fighter poll on his Twitter account, asking the boxing fans to pick his next opponent. Khan in first, Kell Brook second, Terence Crawford No.3 and Horn No.4. That didn’t stop Arum from still making the fight with Pacquiao and Horn. I think Arum is going to push hard until he gets his way in having Pacquiao fight Crawford. It’s a fight that will be a Top Rank affair with Arum in charge of the promotion.
If everything works out well, Pacquiao will lose the fight and Crawford will move into his position to become Top Rank’s next PPV attraction. If things don’t work out well, then Crawford will beat Pacquiao and still be a fighter that boxing fans aren’t interested in purchasing his fights on PPV. That would be bad because Pacquiao would likely be finished as a PPV fighter if he loses to Crawford.
It’s a gamble for Arum to make that fight. It would probably be better for Arum to wait until Pacquiao is in his last fight of his career before making the Pacquiao-Crawford.
Besides Crawford, there are a number of fighters that would be perfect for Pacquiao. The bring back Pacquiao’s sinking PPV numbers to where they were before. Pacquiao’s PPV numbers have taken a big hit since Arum stopped matching him against opposition that the boxing public wants to see him fighting.
Arum has stuck Pacquiao in with his Top Rank fighters Tim Bradley and Jessie Vargas lately. The public’s reaction to those fights was to stay away and not order the fights on PPV. Pacquiao’s fight against Jeff Horn will likely be more of the same with boxing fans choosing to ignore that fight.
Here are the top 10 options for Pacquiao to fight after he beats Horn on July 2:
1. Keith Thurman
2. Danny Garcia
3. Adrien Broner
4. Kell Brook
5. Errol Spence Jr.
6. Mikey Garcia
7. Amir Khan
8. Lucas Matthysse
9. Saul Canelo Alvarez
10. Gennady Golovkin
Terence Crawford is a good fighter, but I rate him below the other fighters on the above list. The thing that Crawford has going for him is Arum wants to match him against Pacquiao. That puts Crawford at the top of the list for Pacquiao’s next fight. The boxing public might not be excited as seeing Pacquiao fight Crawford, but that doesn’t matter. If Arum wants the Pacquiao-Crawford fight to happen, then he’s going to make the fight. It’ll be a done deal.
Here are the likely top 5 fighters that Pacquiao will be fighting before he retires:
1. Terence Crawford
2. Vasyl Lomachenko
3. Oscar Valdez
4. Shakur Stevenson
5. Mikey Garcia
I think it’s more likely than not that if Pacquiao fights Crawford, Arum will put them back into together in an immediate rematch if the fight makes money. I think Arum will play the rivalry out until either the boxing public stops buying it or until Pacquiao retires. Arum likes to do rematches with his fighters.
That’s why we’ve seen Pacquiao fight Juan Manuel Marquez 4 times, Tim Bradley 3 times, Erik Morales 3 times, and Marco Antonio 2 times. I think we’ll see Crawford vs. Pacquiao at least 2 times. If Pacquiao doesn’t retire, I think Arum will keep putting them in together over and over again rather than letting Pacquiao fight guys like Thurman, Danny Garcia, Khan or Broner. That’s unfortunate because a lot of boxing fans would love to see some new blood.