By Keith Idec
Jeff Horn and his trainer aren’t approaching the biggest fight of his career as if Horn will encounter “an old man.”
The unbeaten Horn is nine years younger than Manny Pacquiao, but the welterweight contender from Australia hasn’t noticed much slippage from the 38-year-old Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs). The Filipino superstar soundly defeated former WBO welterweight champions Jessie Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs) and Timothy Bradley (33-2-1, 13 KOs, 1 NC) in each of his past two fights, both 12-rounders.
That’s more than enough evidence to convince Horn and Glenn Rushton that this is still an imposing Pacquiao capable of thriving at boxing’s elite level. Odds-makers obviously agree, as they’ve installed Pacquiao as a 6-1 favorite over Horn in their 12-round fight for Pacquiao’s WBO 147-pound crown Sunday at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia (ESPN; Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
“We believe Manny Pacquiao’s at his peak,” Rushton said during a conference call Tuesday night. “Certainly, he’s not far off his peak. I think he’s fairly close. He did a terrific job against Jessie Vargas. He was incredibly sharp there. He was picking him off very well. So certainly, he didn’t look like a 38-year-old man in that fight. That’s for sure, so that’s his most recent [fight]. And he certainly looked very, very good in that. Against Bradley, he looked very, very sharp as well. So if he has fallen at all from his peak, he’s come from such a high place, that even falling very slightly, he’s still far ahead of the opposition.”
Pacquiao’s lone loss since rival Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Pacquiao unconscious in their December 2012 bout in Las Vegas came against undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs). Other than that 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat two years ago in Las Vegas, Pacquiao has produced convincing 12-round victories over Vargas, Bradley twice, Chris Algieri and Brandon Rios.
“We’re looking to fight Manny Pacquiao at his very, very best,” Rushton said. “We’re not going in there thinking we’re gonna fight someone who’s past his best, an old man. We’re not thinking that way at all. That would be a foolish mistake to make. We’re prepared to fight Manny Pacquiao. Freddie Roach has been saying how well he’s training and how sharp [he is] and he’s knocking people down in sparring and so forth. So we’re here to fight Manny Pacquiao at his best. We want him to bring his ‘A’ game. We’re gonna bring our ‘A’ game – no excuses, no injuries. Just two great warriors out there and we’re looking forward to this amazing contest.”
Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs), the mandatory challenger for Pacquiao’s title, recognizes that he is skipping several steps in competition by jumping from his last opponent, faded former lightweight contender Ali Funeka (39-6-3, 31 KOs), to Pacquiao. Funeka floored Horn in the third round, but Horn recovered, dropped Fuenka once apiece in the fifth and sixth rounds and won by sixth-round technical knockout December 10 in Auckland, New Zealand.
“I think Manny has looked good in his last couple fights,” Horn said. “He probably doesn’t pull the trigger a little bit when he has the chance. Look, I feel he’s still a super-fast fighter that has easily taken apart his last [two] opponents, I feel. I don’t know whether he’s lost that knockout in him. Who knows? I plan to find out, though.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.