Manny Pacquiao stepped off a private charter flight in Brisbane on Saturday night armed with a massive entourage and some heavy-duty luggage.
Word out of Pacquiao?s training camp in the Philippines is that the WBO welterweight champion has rediscovered his knockout punch. The meanness and aggression that dissipated when he found religion nearly a decade ago has returned. The whisper is that Pacquiao has sat two sparring partners on the seat of their pants while preparing for Sunday?s fight at a packed Suncorp Stadium against Queenslander Jeff Horn, the Brisbane schoolteacher who will play David to Pacquiao?s Goliath.
Pacquiao?s first act on his first morning in Brisbane was to visit a local church. But his plans for Horn are anything but saintly. His trainer Freddie Roach has already declared the fight will be a stroll in the park for the 11-time world champion.
That hasn?t stopped more than 45,000 tickets being snapped up for the event, which has the potential to change the course of boxing in this country. Suncorp Stadium will host the Broncos-Storm game on Friday night and then be transformed into a boxing coliseum for the Sunday afternoon fight.
?I will be going home as world champion,? Pacquiao said on arrival in Brisbane. ?In all my years of boxing, I have never been as motivated and fired up as this fight.
?My team is very happy with my preparation. I am looking forward to this and I will be going home as world champion. Some reports coming out of The Philippines that I haven?t been training hard are not true. It just happens that when some of our friends came around to our training camp, we weren?t doing much and people assumed I wasn?t training hard.?
Freddie Roach, who has trained champions Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya and Wladimir Klitschko, said Pacquiao intends to keep his world title. ?He has the best work ethic in the world. He trains hard every day and we do 48 boxing rounds every day non-stop just work, work, work,? Roach said. ?We are here to win the fight, we don?t take anyone lightly.?
Horn?s promoter Dean Lonergan is expecting an all-out war given the comments emanating from the Pacquiao camp and the style of Horn, who takes greatest pleasure from standing in front of his opposition and trading blows.
The fight will be televised live into 90 million homes in America as part of a deal between boxing legend and Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and ESPN.
Horn can become a household name with an impressive performance, opening the door to super-bouts against some of the best fighters in the world. One of them, American Timothy Bradley, will watch the fight first hand as he commentates the bout for ESPN.
?It?s going to be a war,? Lonergan said. As long as this fight lives up the hype, it will be a deadset war.
?For once, you?re going to see a fight that not only lives up to the hype, but probably exceeds it.
?If Jeff can win his whole world is going to change in terms of opportunity and the landscape is going to change in terms of Australian boxing. Australian boxing will be back in one fell swoop.
?I don?t think you can contemplate how big a superstar Jeff will be in Australia let alone the world if he wins this fight. There will be opportunities everywhere.?
Pacquiao has the right to demand a rematch in the event that he loses, although that would rate as one of the biggest upsets in recent years. The 38-year-old is one of the greatest fighters of his generation, albeit one who hasn?t knocked out an opponent for nearly a decade.
Still, he takes a significant edge in experience into Sunday?s bout. Pacquiao, who had nearly 200 family and friends accompany him on the flight from The Philippines, has traded blows with some of the greatest fighters of the past 20 years. Horn has only had 17 fights, although he boasts an undefeated record and an iron will.
?He has first and last rights for a rematch if the option is exercised,? Lonergan said. ?It doesn?t have to be if he doesn?t want it to be. If he gets belted like we think he?s going to be belted, he might want nothing to do with it. There?s no doubt Manny is hugely experienced. There?s only two guys going in that ring ? one of them is a 38-year-old, one of them is 29. We didn?t get in this game to compete, we didn?t get in this game to fight for world titles, we got in this game to win them.
?He?s (Horn) fitter, he?s stronger, he?s younger. What I am hearing out of the Manny camp is that his meanness and aggression is back. He started winning fights by points for a while. But he?s knocked down his sparring partners a couple of times in this camp.?
The fight will be the first of Arum?s long-term deal with American broadcaster ESPN, meaning Horn will be introduced to a whole new audience throughout America.
An impressive win will put him on the radar of nor only the American public, but their hard-marking media. Horn heads into the fight not even regarded among the 10 best welterweights in the world according to the prestigious pound-for-pound rankings of The Ring magazine. Pacquiao is fourth. Yet if Horn can win, the likes of Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Jessie Vargas and Bradley will be on his radar.
