Pacquiao’s Horn fight will be ‘short and sweet’
MANNY Pacquiao’s world title fight with Jeff Horn will be “short and sweet” with a knockout likely, his trainer predicted yesterday, as his Australian challenger said he was “ready for war”.
The legendar y Filipino, one of t he greatest f ighters of his generat ion, is widely t ipped to triumph over the unbeaten Horn in front of an expected 50,000 people at Br isba ne’s Suncorp Stadium on Sunday, with the main event sheduled to sta r t at 10 :30a m Cambodian time.
“[Manny] doesn’t like to predict knockouts and so forth, but I think it is going to be short and sweet,” trainer Freddie Roach said at a press conference ahead of the World Boxing Organization ( WBO) welterweight bout. “I think it won’t last too long and someone will get knocked out.”
Roach on Tuesday suggested that the fight was a stepping stone for the eight-weight world champion to secure a rematch with his American rival Floyd Mayweather, who outpointed Pacquiao in the “Fight of the Century” two years ago.
The 29-year-old Horn’s camp hit back, with the former schoolteacher’s promoters taking a dig at Pacquiao for spending most of the press conference looking at his mobile phone.
“Not only is Manny Pacquiao an 11-time world champion . . . he is also a world champion texter because he never gets off his bloody phone,” Dean Lonergan said.
Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton accused Pacquiao’s camp of underestimating his challenger and said that the so-called “Battle of Brisbane” would become the “fight of the year”.
“My vision for this fight is it will be a late stoppage. I think it is going to occur late in the fight after . . . all of these rounds,” Rushton said.
“I personally believe this will be the fight of the year. I do think Freddie and Manny are probably underestimating Jeff even though I know they say they are not because he is too experienced not to prepare properly.
“But I do think when they get out there, it’s going to be so different. I think this will become Manny’s toughest fight . . . we’ve trained as hard as we’ve ever trained for this fight, so we’re ready for war.”