Daily Star

Pac-man’s primed to roar again

- ® Interview by CHRIS McKENNA

Pacquiao v Horn is live and exclusive in the UK on BoxNation

MANNY PACQUIAO can become a huge star Stateside again if he beats Jeff Horn in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

And that is down to the genius thinking of American promotiona­l legend Bob Arum – a man who keeps inspiring me to continue, having a huge impact in boxing.

Pacquiao (below), now 38, will defend his WBO welterweig­ht crown against Australia’s Horn in front of almost 60,000 fans in Brisbane.

The fight will be shown here in the UK on BoxNation, but it will be watched by millions in America after Arum struck a big deal with broadcast giants ESPN.

It is the first time in years that the Pac-man is not on pay-per-view and it shows the innovative nature of Arum, even at the age of 85, to revitalise interest in the Filipino puncher.

Arum has always been a leader in America and he continues to be so – his enthusiasm is certainly inspiring.

He was talking to me the other day about how he is putting a deal together and he said, ‘In 10 years time this will be huge’. I was thinking, ‘He will be 95 then!’

I look at how he has kept going and then I look at the huge crop of young talent we have now in our stable and I can only be excited. By next year they will all be headlining big events and we have our own pay-per-view platform in place to help them, another of our innovative ideas.

First up though is a huge card on September 16 in London with two of our establishe­d world champions as Billy Joe Saunders defends his WBO middleweig­ht title and Terry Flanagan puts his WBO lightweigh­t title on the line.

Then in the early hours of the following morning you can catch the middleweig­ht match-up between two of the best in the world, when Gennady Golovkin and Saul Alvarez go toe-to-toe in Las Vegas.

What a night of boxing that will be for fans. Meanwhile, Eddie Hearn has been saying this week that the heavyweigh­t rematch between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko could head to Las Vegas – but I believe that will end up in Cardiff.

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