The heavy-handed approach for Horn
JEFF Horn plans to use his massive weight advantage over Manny Pacquiao to grind down the world welterweight champion and stop him in the late rounds of Sunday’s superfight at Suncorp Stadium.
Horn, who has started to taper his weight down for Saturday morning’s official weigh-in, is likely to be as much as 7kg heavier than Pacquiao when the bell rings at 1.30pm on Sunday.
Yesterday afternoon, Horn was at his favourite coffee shop in West End chewing on a piece of fruit loaf but already savouring the taste of success.
The fight has already shattered the attendance record for an Australian fight with 47,000 tickets gone and payper-view sales on Main Event expected to top 200,000, making it the most watched pay-per-view event in Australian history.
Both boxers must come in under the welterweight limit of 66.68kg tomorrow morning at the official weigh-in at Suncorp Stadium.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach says his boxer is naturally a much smaller man and has been as light as 62kg in recent weeks. He will probably weight 65kg for the fight.
But after loading up on pasta after tomorrow’s weigh-in Horn could be as much as 72kg by the time the pair get into the ring on Sunday afternoon.
“The weight advantage will definitely help me in the later rounds,’’ Horn admitted.
“Because we’ll be pushing against each other all the time and it means he’s going to be pushing a lot more weight than I have to.
``I’m normally about 71kg at this stage before a fight but I’ve been sitting at 70.2, 70.3 for the last few days as though my body instinctively knows the weight has to come down.
Horn had a small portion of chicken and Caesar salad last night, and was planning eggs and avocado on toast for breakfast today, a small wrap at lunchtime and then a salad to ward off hunger at 5pm.
“Then tomorrow night I’ll have my very last training session before the fight. I’ll do eight three-minute rounds in a plastic sweat suit. That will rip about 1kg or more off me.
“I like to go to bed the night before a weigh-in under 69kg. Overnight I’ll drop as much as 500 grams and then in the morning I have a hot bath and that takes off the rest.’’
Horn said he and trainer Glenn Rushton took a ``highly scientific’’ approach to weight control, ensuring Horn retains his remarkable physical strength while dropping weight fast.
THE WEIGHT ADVANTAGE WILL DEFINITELY HELP ME JEFF HORN