It took a while for Pacquiao to finally decide to face Horn because his longtime adviser Michael Koncz was presented a lucrative offer from a Middle East group to stage the long-delayed Pacquiao-Khan fight in UAE. Funding for the proposed UAE fight did not materialize prompting Koncz and Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum to revive the Pacquiao-Horn stalled talks.
“We signed the Jeff Horn contract this morning. Fight is July 2 in Brisbane, Australia,” Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told AFP by text message.
But Arum said that while the the fight has been confirmed, there are still some minor issues to be resolved.
“We’re slowly finishing up the deal to fight … people have agreed on essential points,” Arum told The Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview from Washington.
“Paperwork takes time, particularly when it’s not the usual thing of getting it done in the United States. We’re dealing with an Australian promoter, the state government. … Here, in this case, you’ve got to cross the T’s and dot the I’s, and that’s what we’re in the process of doing.” Arum added.
Pacquiao is coming off a unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas on Nov. 5, 2016 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas Nevada to reclaim his WBO welterweight title.
The eight-division world champion is staking his WBO title against Horn, a relatively unknown fighter from Brisbane, Queensland.
Horn is a huge underdog in what some boxing fans say the fight is a mismatch considering that Horn has only 17 pro fights to his credit compared to Pacquiao’s 67 fights spanning over 20 years. Horn is 29 while Pacquiao has turned 38 last December.
Arum did not disclose Pacquiao’s purse for the Horn fight. Pacquiao used to receive from Arum a guaranteed prize of $20 million but due to declining pay per view sales in the US, the guaranteed prize no longer applies to Pacquiao’s most recent fights.
