At nearly 40 years old, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao will fight for the first time in Australia on July 1st against the pride of Brisbane, Jeff Horn, and the Suncorp Stadium will be packed with over 50,000 in attendance.
Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) holds the WBO welterweight championship and the unbeaten Horn is his mandatory challenger. This is a very dangerous fight for an aging legend who has already achieved everything you can in boxing including 8 weight division titles, he is in against a young hungry lion who wants to take the throne away from him in his hometown.
Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) is only 28 years old, a school teacher who got into boxing as a teen to fight off bullies. He grew up watching Manny Pacquiao and to face off against him is like a dream come true. Horn has the power to knockout anyone, and this will be the biggest 147 pound puncher that Manny has ever faced in the boxing ring. Another Pacquiao foe, Sugar Shane Mosley was a hard puncher but he wasn’t in his prime.
Horn is not even 30 and barely coming into his prime years as a fighter. I’ve watched some highlights of Horn and he is a very awkward, energetic, hard hitting warrior. He has been down but has bounced off the canvas to stop those who have hurt him in fights. Like Manny he doesn’t take getting hurt lightly, instead of running away and playing it safe he will want revenge for that knockdown by hurting you even worse.
The motivation edge seems to be with the young undefeated Aussie. Manny was text messaging on his phone the the entire duration of the fight week press conference. If he takes Horn lightly he will be in for a shock and a huge upset will be seen on ESPN by a larger audience in the United States. Horn can be a star in the USA without even fighting there should he knockout Pacquiao and win the WBO title.
I am looking forward to Pacquiao vs. Horn, especially since its free on ESPN and not on Pay-Per-View, get your popcorn, food and drinks ready, because this should be a fun fourth of July weekend starting with fireworks in the boxing ring.
