2012 Olympian Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs) is very motivated while counting down the days until the biggest fight of his professional career.
On July 1 [July 2 in Australia], Horn will challenge WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, before an expected crowd of over 40,000 fans, at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.
A few days ago, it was announced that Pacquiao-Horn would be televised in the United States by ESPN, as part of a new television deal between the network and Pacquiao's promoter Top Rank. BoxNation picked up the contest in the UK.
Horn has studied a lot of Pacquiao's fights in recent years.
But if there is one fight that Horn is fixated on, it's when Pacquiao was knocked unconscious by Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth bout in 2012. During the sixth round, Pacquiao was caught cold at the end of the sixth round, when he jumped in and Marquez landed a perfect counter-shot, that sent the Filipino superstar down the mat face-first.
Horn is making it no secret, he will be looking to land the exact same shot as Marquez.
"Yes of course, I will be trying to get him with that same shot if I possibly can. I’m working on all of the strategies and trying to see what’s going to work best on the night, but you don’t know until you step in there," Horn told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
And Horn sees several flaws that he plans to expose on the night of the fight.
"I think he sometimes is focused on his attack so much and he uses that as his offense, but he does leave himself open a little bit, as he was seen to do with Marquez in the fight where he got knocked out," Horn said.
"I think he probably is training hard. He’s been doing this for so long, so the pressure isn’t going to get to him, he’s been in high pressure situations before and this is going to be no different to those. If I hit him with the right punch, you don’t know what would happen. If I do catch him early, I will be going after him. But if that doesn’t come, I will be trying to wear him down later in the fight."