SOME of the greatest fighters of all time will be ringside to see if Jeff Horn can create boxing history against Manny Pacquiao in Australia?s biggest ever fight at Suncorp Stadium on July 2.
Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns, Evander Holyfield and former Pacquiao victim Shane Mosley will all be in Brisbane for the big fight along with New Zealand?s WBO world heavyweight champ Joseph Parker and Australian greats Jeff Fenech and Danny Green.
Duran is expected to have a reunion with the great Brisbane boxer Hector Thompson, who traded bombs with him in a 1973 world lightweight title fight in Panama City.
The boxing greats will all be special guests ? along with Horn and Pacquiao ? at a gala luncheon at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition centre on Friday, June 30, two days before the world welterweight title fight.
The lunch is being billed as a once in a lifetime opportunity for Brisbane fans to meet boxing ?royalty?.
Duran, who stopped Thompson in the eighth round of a brutal slugfest, is considered by many to be the greatest lightweight (61kg) fighter of all time.
He has said the fight with Thompson ? a Commonwealth titleholder trained by the great Reg Layton ? was one of the toughest of his career.
While relations between Duran and Pacquiao are expected to be cordial, the Panamanian icon known as The Hands of Stone has previously said: ?Boxing wise I was more intelligent than Pacquiao. He has only one style of fighting.?
Duran was recently the subject of a Hollywood biopic starting Robert De Niro as his trainer Ray Arcel.
Dundee puts punch into Horn, Goodall
HE has spent four years helping Jeff Horn?s trainer Glenn Rushton prepare the world welterweight title challenger and now Korean-born fitness guru Dundee Kim is putting more punch into Commonwealth Games gold medal hope Joseph Goodall.
Twice a week Kim risks broken hands by putting the 105kg destroyer through punches at his West End gym and last week organised a gathering of business people to help sponsor Australia?s big hope for gold on the Gold Coast next year.
Last month, Goodall, 24 outpointed 202cm Polish giant Aleksander Stawirej to win the super-heavyweight division at the prestigious Feliks Stamm Tournament in Warsaw. Previous winners include former world and Olympic champ Lennox Lewis.
Like Horn, the 193cm Goodall had never boxed until meeting Rushton.
He won a silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow three years ago and is one of the favourites to take gold at the world championships in Hamburg, Germany, in August. Bradley?s grim warning to Horn
FORMER world welterweight champ Tim Bradley, who scored a controversial decision over Manny Pacquiao in 2012, has warned Jeff Horn about the Filipino?s astonishing punching power.
Bradley told fighthype.com: ?Jeff Horn is going to feel Pacquiao?s power. He?s there to be hit. Horn comes forward and that?s what Pacquiao wants. He wants you to come forward so he can use the angles and pop you from outside. That straight left is his best punch. If he lands that shot you gonna go down and you?re gonna feel it.?
Bradley took a split decision over Pacquiao in 2012 but lost two subsequent rematches. Sparring partners win the double
TWO of Jeff Horn?s sparring partners scored big wins in Brisbane on Saturday night
at the Mansfield Tavern.
Mackay southpaw Liam Paro stopped veteran Alex Ah Tong in round four and Nathan Webber outpointed Thailand?s Paitoon Jaikom.
Webber, a former Australian amateur champion, faces Kostya Tszyu?s fast rising son Tim Tszyu next month in Toowoomba.
Also on Saturday night, rugged cruiserweight Aaron Russell outscored Nikolas Charalampous over 10 rounds and middleweight Adrian Rodriguez stopped Salar King in round eight.
Slick light-heavyweight Reagan Dessaix outpointed Friday Nwaiwu Johnny Lewis backs Horn
AUSTRALIA?S most successful fight trainer Johnny Lewis has a huge wrap on Jeff Horn and thinks he might be getting Manny Pacquiao at the right time to cause a major upset.
Lewis, 73, who trained six world champs, was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in New York on the weekend, joining two of his Aussie champs, Jeff Fenech and Kostya Tszyu, who were inducted in previous years.
Lewis paid special tribute to Fenech, his first and greatest world champ.
?I?ve never seen anyone work as hard as him in my whole career,? Lewis said.
?After just a few amateur fights he was captain of the Australian Olympic team and he went on to win three world titles and fight a draw (with Azumah Nelson) for a fourth.
?His work rate was unbelievable.?
Between 1985 and 1989 I was fortunate to be alongside Lewis in Fenech?s corner for all his world title wins. Toussaint, Hooper top huge Suncorp undercard
CANBERRA?S brilliant middleweight David Toussaint will fight Shane Mosley Jnr in a highlight of the Horn-Pacquiao undercard.
Toussaint is unbeaten in 10 fights with eight KO wins.
Mosley Jr, whose father lost on points to Pacquiao in 2011, has 10 wins in 11 fights.
Toussaint is coming off an impressive KO over former world-rated Sydney boxer Junior Talipeau. He also holds impressive victories over Jordan Tai and Steve Moxon.
?I am grateful for this opportunity to fight on the biggest boxing card seen in Australia and I?m looking forward to fighting Shane in front of an international audience,? Toussaint said.
?I?ve worked hard to be in this position and the sacrifices are paying off.??
Horn?s promoters Duco Events see Toussaint as a future world champ.
The fight card will also feature Horn?s London Olympic teammate Damien Hooper, from Dalby, against Russian light-heavyweight Umar Salamov and Brisbane featherweight Jarret Owen against Irish Olympian Michael Conlan.
The Jeff Fenech-trained Brock Jarvis faces undefeated Indonesian bantamweight Andika Sabu while Pacquiao prot?g?, Jerwin Ancajas, will defend his IBF world super-flyweight title against Teiru Kinoshita on Japan. Flanagan sparring Caparello ahead of Russian title fight
TOWNSVILLE?S Brisbane-based Mark Flanagan is in Melbourne sparring southpaw Blake Caparello ahead of the Queenslander?s world title fight with Russian slugger Denis Lebedev next month.
Flanagan?s trainer Alfie Di Carlo said it was important to ramp up his fighter?s preparation by training with Caparello, a world class light-heavyweight who once decked another star Russian, Sergey Kovalev.
The pair plan to spar for two weeks.
The fight takes place on July 10 in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Flanagan, who grew up in a Townsville housing commission estate, is undefeated in his past 11 fights.
While Flanagan will go into the fight against the World Boxing Association 90kg champ a heavy underdog, he has world class power.
Lebedev has beaten the likes of Roy Jones and James Toney.
Shannon?s world title shot
LOGAN?S Shannon O?Connell will face IBF women?s super-bantamweight champ Marcela Eliana Acuna in Argentina on Friday night.
Acuna is a veteran boxer and martial artist known as ?La Tigresa??.
?She is regarded as the best boxer in the world at my weight and she has a big advantage in experience over me. She?s been at the top level of boxing for 20 years,?? said O?Connell, 34.
?We were negotiating with her to defend her world title against me on the Horn-Pacquiao card but she wanted the fight in Argentina so we?re going over there to bring the world title home.
?She?s more experienced than me but I definitely have more hand speed and I?m ready to fight harder than anyone she?s ever faced.??
O?Connell will be the first Australian to challenge for a world title in Argentina since the great middleweight Tony Mundine lost to Carlos Monzon in Buenos Aires in 1974.
Acuna, 41, was a karate black belt aged 12 and has been a pro boxer since she challenged the top American Christy Martin in Florida in 1997.
She has 45 wins from 52 fights and has not lost in five years but one of her world title defeats came by decision against the Gold Coast?s Sharon Anyos at Broadbeach in 2005.
O?Connell has 15 wins in 20 fights. She said her main motivations for victory were her children Taylor, nine, and Cooper, 10. Jade North on the Rocky Road
BRISBANE Roar star Jade North is backing his great mate Rocky Jerkic to revive his once meteoric boxing career in Poland next week.
Jerkic will face Maciej Sulecki, who is undefeated in 24 starts, at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk on June 24 on a card that includes former rugby league hit-man Solomon Haumono against former world 90kg champ Tomasz Adamek.
Unbeaten in his first 15 fights and described by all-time great Jeff Fenech as a future world champion, Jerkic suffered his first defeat in March when he dropped a split decision to Melbourne?s Anthony Buttigieg for the Commonwealth 70kg title.
North and Darwin-born 29-year-old Jerkic have been friends for years and the footballer said he was ?blown away? by his mate?s fitness and athleticism.
?He?s a great athlete,? North said.
?I help Rocky whenever I can in the gym and I?m really hoping he can get back on the winning track in Poland. He?s a brilliant boxer.?
