Chasing another crack at Hornet
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 yesterday 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 Freddie Roach told magazine 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 yesterday: “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 (promoters) 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 – able to seat 56,000 people under a retractable
BASKETBALL roof – vying to steal the fight from Brisbane because of fears over the heat and prospect of rain late in the year.
Horn, who was in Los Angeles yesterday for the prestigious ESPY sports awards, welcomed a rematch. “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 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.’’
Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton predicted that Horn would stop Pacquiao inside the distance in a return fight.
“Jeff will only get stronger and better from that victory,’’ said Rushton.
“Manny has reached his peak and he can’t get any better. Jeff can.”
SWIMMING