Pacquiao has new plan for Horn rematch

BOXING: Manny Pacquiao wants to fight Jeff Horn again this year and he wants American Freddie Roach back in his corner.

The Filipino senator, who lost his World Boxing Organisation title to Horn in front of 51,025 people at Suncorp Stadium on July 2, said his whole fight plan would be different a second time.

“More disciplined,” Pacquiao told Filipino website Rappler. “Throwing a lot of punches.”

Displaying a photo of blood streaming down the side of his head in battle with Horn, Pacquiao tweeted: “I love this sport and until the passion is gone, I will continue to fight for God, my family, my fans and my country.”

Even though Pacquiao’s American trainer Roach told Sports Illustrated that he feared Pacquiao was “mad” at him over the loss and complained that he had not been paid after the fight, the former world champ said: “I have no problem with coach Freddie Roach. I’m not the one paying him, it’s Bob Arum.

“The trainer’s fee is automatically deducted by (promoter) Top Rank from my purse. So if coach Freddie has not yet received his payment, we are on the same boat. My purse has not yet been released by Arum.”

A rematch is mooted for November, with Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium – which is able to seat 56,000 people under a retractable roof – vying to steal the fight from Brisbane because of fears over the Queensland heat and prospect of rain late in the year.

Horn would welcome a rematch and said Pacquiao would be an even tougher foe now he knows all about the Australian’s heart and power.

“I shocked him,” Horn said. “I knew all along he thought that I would be an easy fight. He kept saying he wasn’t underestimating me all along but I could tell by his body language that he thought I would be just a walk in the park for him.

“I’d love the rematch. I know he’d train harder and be better prepared but I’d beat him even more convincingly than the first time.”

Arum, who staged the Suncorp superfight in partnership with Horn’s promoter Duco Events, said he expected to visit Pacquiao in the Philippines in the next two weeks to discuss Pacquiao’s future and the prospect of him exercising the rematch clause in his contract.