By Keith Idec
Embracing the role of an enormous underdog has helped Jeff Horn during training camp for his fight against Manny Pacquiao.
With a crowd of approximately 60,000 expected Sunday at Suncorp Stadium in Horn’s hometown of Brisbane, Australia, being viewed as a hopeless opponent Pacquiao is supposed to knock out has driven Horn as he has prepared for by far the biggest fight of his four-year pro career. The Philippines’ Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) is listed by Las Vegas and Internet sports books as a 6-1 favorite over Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs), the No. 1 contender for the powerful southpaw’s WBO welterweight title.
“It honestly gave me massive motivation,” Horn said during a conference call Tuesday night. “It did in training, anyway. It made me train harder, knowing that no one gives me a shot. But I’ve experienced that throughout my whole career. And I guess this one’s on a whole other level, where there’s a lot more people saying I stand no chance at all. I like that. I like being the underdog.”
The 29-year-old Horn is taking a steep step up in competition after stopping South Africa’s Ali Funeka (39-6-3, 31 KOs) in the sixth round of his last fight. Funeka, then 38, floored Horn in the third round before Horn came back to drop Funeka once apiece in the fifth and sixth rounds, and won their scheduled 10-round bout December 10 in Auckland, New Zealand.
The 2012 Olympian has not fought an opponent nearly as good or as accomplished as the 38-year-old Pacquiao since making his pro debut in March 2013. According to his trainer, Glenn Rushton, none of these obvious disadvantages have deterred the extremely competitive Horn during training for their scheduled 12-round fight (ESPN; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT Saturday).
“Jeff is a fierce competitor,” Rushton said. “He is very, very determined. And certainly along with his chin and his big heart, probably one of the really, really key factors is Jeff hates losing at anything – whether it’s poker, whether it’s table tennis or whatever it is. He’s one of those people that just has to win.
“And I think that it has been a real motivating factor that it’s like, ‘How dare people say that I’m not gonna win?’ So, you know, he understands it, of course. I mean, we know we’re fighting one of the greatest fighters of all time. And we’re very, very mindful and respectful of Manny Pacquiao’s abilities.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.