FORMER Cebu-based coach Graeme Mackinnon is back down under and one of the things we talked about during a brief meeting the other night with Dan Palami was Manny Pacquiao?s fight against Jeff Horn.
Horn who?
Exactly. Not much is known about the guy outside of Australia and the only thing for certain is that he?s the pick of Top Rank promoter Bob Arum.
Remember what happened when Arum first broached the idea of a Horn vs. Pacquiao fight? Michael Koncz, Pacquiao?s adviser, brushed if off and started looking for another foe. Pacquiao?s official Twitter account also did a poll and Amir Khan was the runaway winner as the fans? favorite to take on Manny.
So off to Dubai Koncz went to negotiate the fight, one that the veteran Arum said wouldn?t materialize, and guess who turned out to be right?
Wily Bob, of course, so Pacquiao is off fighting Jeff Horn again. (Horn who?)
A chastised Koncz told Fox Sports Australia. ?we?re not able to fight Amir Khan because of Ramadan, so we decided to take this fight in the interim.? And that basically dismisses Horn as a get-busy fight for the fighting senator.
According to Graeme, Horn is a nice guy who?s a part-time teacher and that, I think, is how wily Bob will sell the fight. A part-time…I mean full-time senator taking on a boxer with a 16-0-1 record who?s also a teacher.
Judging from the disparity of their experience, it?s highly unlikely that Manny will lose. But still, this is boxing, one punch is all you need, and I told Graeme that if Manny has to lose, a guy like Horn would be the perfect boxer to lose to.
How wide is their gap in experience? Well, Horn made his debut on March 1, 2013 the year after Manny had back-to-back losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez. Also in 2013, Manny ended his string of losses with a win over Brandon Rios in November.
And while Manny faced Floyd Mayweather in the disappointment of the century in 2015, Horn had a grand total of eight fights under his belt.
At this point of his career, where he?s won eight division titles, been at the top of world boxing for close to a decade, there?s nothing left for Manny to prove. We all know why he?s staying for another year or two in the sport after promising to retire and concentrate on politics.
Money. Manny needs Money. That?s why he will be going Down Under to fight boxers like Jeff Horn, uttering his now almost default line, ?I?m doing this for the country.? (This is where we all roll our eyes.)
Last I heard, Manny has told Bob Arum that he wants the fight to be aired over free TV and not on pay- per-view but judging from his last fights, when the PPV sales were nowhere near his peak, that?s just a way for them to avoid having record low PPV sales for a Pacquiao fight.
