2012 Australian Olympian Jeff Horn believes WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao will not be "his very best" for their showdown at the 'Battle for Brisbane'.
Challenger Horn will have his hands full when he takes on one-time 'fighter of the decade' Pacquiao at Suncorp Stadium on July 2.
But the 29-year-old, who is nine years younger than the Filipino fighter, believes the time is right to send the champion into retirement.
"I think (Pacquiao) nearly got 10 years on me," Horn told Sports Sunday. "I guess that's going to be an advantage. (So) he's very best, he's not at any more."
However, Horn has no illusions about the task that has been place in front of him, citing Pacquiao's domination of Jessie Vargas late last year as an example of the power still being in the 38-year-old Pacquiao's gloves.
Horn, a school teacher, has studied his opponent and has come up with a simple game plan based on a not-so secret weapon.
"Now I know I'm going to get hit in there, but hopefully not just as much as Pacquiao," Horn said. "I reckon the key punch is the right hand with Pacquiao.
"Because he's a left-hander ... he's been knocked out by the right before. Leading that over-hand right, the same one (Juan Manuel) Marquez got him with, is just timing."
But Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, has been all smiles, because he feels that the old version of his fighter is finally back. He says Pacquiao, who has not scored a knockout since 2009, is back to his vicious self.
“It’s been a long time, it makes you feel happy, I’m feeling the power on the mitts,” said Roach. “I have not seen this Manny Pacquiao in seven years.”
“He reminds me of the old days, of the Manny who fought Ricky Hatton, just destroying them. When he found the Bible, he’d tell me, ‘I don’t have to hurt people, I can beat them by points. It has been really, really frustrating. To fight the Bible is really hard, I am not religious, I don’t know it that well, whereas Manny reads it every day. So it’s tough to argue. But I don’t think God decides the outcomes of fights, I think people do.”