It’s been billed as the biggest fight in Australian boxing history and by all accounts it’s shaping up to live up to the hype as 11-time world champion Manny Pacquiao will face Australian Jeff Horn for the WBO Welterweight title this Sunday.
The fight will take place at Brisbane’s Suncorp Arena, with tickets said to be already sold out for the blockbuster event. Manny Pacquiao has had two fights since his defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr back in 2015, winning them both by unanimous decision.
It’s been well over 20 years since the Filipino master fought professionally for the first time but Pacquiao stated earlier this week that “In all my years of boxing, I’ve never been as motivated and fired up as this fight”.
Although he’s won both of his fights since Mayweather, Pacquiao has been fairly pre-occupied over the last few years. He has rose through the political ranks in the Philippines and recently became a senator. If his word is anything to go by he should be ready for the fight but at 38 and with a lot of things pre-occupying his training time, some questions have to be raised.
Jeff Horn, on the other hand, is in the prime of his career at 29 and is undefeated at 16-0-1 in his short but fruitful professional career. The former schoolteacher has had a meteoric rise in the world of boxing but the agreement to the fight by Pacquiao has garnered some criticism because of Horn’s low international profile.
There’s no doubting that this will be one of Pacquiao’s last fights, and it feels like picking Horn given his low profile and relative inexperience could be a sign that he wants an easier fight in lead up to something bigger. Whether he gets the easy fight is a different story.
Pacquiao has opened at a strong $1.20 to win the fight, and rightfully so, however, he hasn’t knocked out an opponent since 2009 and his punches aren’t getting any harder. If you fancy him to win this fight you’re better off getting on him to win by decision which is at $2.11.
TIP: Manny Pacquiao to win by decision - $2.11 at Sportsbet
Jeff Horn has won his last two fights by TKO and it’s likely that he lacks the boxing prowess to go with the Filipino champion for 12 rounds. If he’s going to win this fight it will be while he’s fresh in the first few rounds and has a chance at landing a KO punch on Pacquiao.
TIP: Jeff Horn to win by KO/TKO - $7.50 at Sportsbet
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