Horn to hit big boxing payday
JEFF Horn is chasing a $5 million payday to defend his world welterweight title against American Terence Crawford and will begin serious training for the bout in five weeks.
In Horn’s contract to fight Manny Pacquiao at Suncorp Stadium on July 2 he was guaranteed two payments of $US750,000 to defend the title if victorious and he fulfilled part one on Wednesday night when he stopped Englishman Gary Corcoran.
But his team, led by trainer/ manager Glenn Rushton, say the same guarantee ($1 million) is way too light for the magnitude of the Crawford fight, tentatively set for the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on April 21.
They are fighting for a much bigger purse from American promoter Bob Arum.
“I can tell you now Jeff won’t be fighting Crawford for $1 million,” his promoter, Dean Lonergan said.
“This is a huge fight pitting a man who beat an 11-time world champ (Pacquiao) against a fighter who is unbeaten in 32 bouts and regarded by many as the world’s best boxer pound-for-pound. This will be one of the biggest fights in the world in 2018.”
Horn, who helped himself to the sausage rolls at the 90th birthday party for his grandfather Ray Horn at Brisbane’s Belmont Bowls Club on Saturday night, says he is keen to stay at the welterweight limit of 66.68kg even though he usually has to lose 4kg the day before the weigh-in.
Lonergan said the welterweight division was the “glamour” weight class in boxing at the moment and represented the biggest prizes for Horn, with a planned series of fights against Crawford and the other world welterweight champs Errol Spence and Keith Thurman.
Horn has also been offered a $2 million payday against Anthony Mundine but said the way negotiations are progressing it looked like he would be facing Crawford first.
“I’m very happy to go to Las Vegas and fight Crawford,” Horn said.
“I believe I have the size and the strength to beat him and I think it will be a very exciting fight for the fans. I want America to see me as a boxer with a lot of heart and a really entertaining style.”