By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao is unavailable for the rematch with Jeff Horn on November 12 due to commitments with his senatorial job in the Philippines. Horn beat Pacquiao by what some boxing feel was a hometown decision on July 2 at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
Horn is from Australia, and he had it his own way when it came to rough Pacquiao up and not being called for fouls by the referee assigned to the fight. Pacquiao was head-butted countless times, and cut twice from Horn’s head. Pacquiao lost a 12 round unanimous decision that could have easily gone the other way.
If Pacquiao had faced Horn in a rematch in November, it would have taken place in Australia again.
Instead of Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) defending against Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs), former WBO 147 lb. champion Jessie Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs) is being mentioned as the potential opponent that Horn, 29, will be facing in late 2017.
Vargas, 28, is rated number 9 by the World Boxing Organization, and he’s coming off of a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision loss to Pacquiao on November 5 last year. Vargas hasn’t fought in the last 10 months since his defeat to Pacquiao. It’s unclear why Vargas has been inactive for such an extended period. With this being a voluntary defense for Horn, it doesn’t matter how long Vargas has been inactive. If he’s rated in the top 15 by the WBO, he’s good to go.
Like Horn and Pacquiao, Vargas is promoted by Top Rank. Picking Vargas to fight Horn would keep the fight an in-house match-up for Top Rank. If Horn were to lose to Vargas, the WBO 147 lb. title would stay in house with Top Rank rather than going to a fighter not promoted by Top Rank. It’s thought that light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford will move up to challenge for the WBO title as soon as Horn faces Pacquiao in the rematch in 2018 net year. Crawford is also with Top Rank. The WBO title will likely get passed from the Pacquiao-Horn 2 winner to Crawford at that time.
“On behalf of the Philippines government, he (Pacquiao) will be part of a delegation that will visit China in the middle of his proposed preparation period for the fight,” said Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan via skysports.com. “Pacquiao is committed to fighting again in 2018 and a rematch with Jeff Horn for the WBO world welterweight title.”
This is unwelcome news for Horn for a couple of reasons. First off, a rematch against Pacquiao would have made the Australian Horn a massive amount of money. Fighting Vargas is not nearly as big a fight. Horn won’t get the same kind of money. Secondly, Vargas is a tough fighter with good power, size and boxing skills. There’s a chance that Horn could lose to Vargas.
Horn won’t have the element of surprise in a fight against Vargas as far as using roughhouse tactics against him. Horn won’t be able to head-butt, shove and apply constant head-locks all night long against Vargas like he was able to do against Pacquiao in their fight on July 2. Vargas will be able to plan on how to negate Horn’s head-ramming style of fighting, as well as his shoving and head-locks. Team Vargas will be sure to alert the referee ahead of time to monitor Horn’s physical style to make sure he doesn’t bend the rules by using roughhouse tactics to try and gain an edge.
Pacquiao was taken by surprise last July when he got inside the ring with Horn. Pacquiao didn’t realize that Horn was going to rough him up for 12 rounds. The referee was there, but ht was just watching the fight and not addressing Horn’s roughing up of Pacquiao. The fight was like watching an old video of how fights used to be many years ago when referees took hands off approach to controlling physical play from fighters.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach should have come up with a good plan to neutralize Horn’s roughhouse tactics, but he didn’t. There are many ways to stop a fighter from fouling if the referee isn’t going to do anything about it, which obviously was the case in the Pacquiao-Horn fight on July 2. Pacquiao could have been more mobile to keep Horn from having a stationary target.
Pacquiao could have fought fire with fire by using his own brand of physical play to make Horn think twice about ramming him with his head or shoving him around the ring. It was a missed opportunity for Pacquiao, but it starts with the trainer. Roach should have known what to do when it was clear the referee wasn’t going to do his job to control Horn’s roughhouse tactics.
Not surprisingly, Pacquiao did not agree with the results of his decision loss to Horn. He felt that he should have been given the win, as did a lot of boxing fans. The World Boxing Organization had 5 independent judges re-score the fight, and they came to the same conclusion as the original set of judges that Horn had done enough to win the fight. The WBO picked the 5 independent judges, and not an outside organization.
Horn had a huge crowd of 51,000 fans that turned out to see him fight Pacquiao in Brisbane last July. Most of the boxing fans were rooting for Horn.
Top Rank could obviously find an easier opponent for Horn to defend his WBO title against in November or December than Jessie Vargas, but then the opponent likely wouldn’t be with Top Rank. In selecting Vargas, it matches two fighters from Top Rank, so there’s no sharing of the promotion with an outside promoter.
It’s too bad Tim Bradley retired. His retirement came at the wrong time for him and Top Rank. If Bradley was still fighting, he very likely would have gotten the nod to face Horn this year, and that would have given him a good payday. You’d have to favor Bradley to beat Horn. A win over Horn would setup a 4th fight between Bradley and Pacquiao. It’s unfortunate Bradley hung up his gloves when he did, because he could have made a lot more money if he stuck around long enough to face Horn and then potentially get another fight against Pacquiao. Bradley should get on the phone with Top Rank and let them know he’s available to come out of retirement to face Horn.