Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn Is Back On

Jeff Horn’s journey to securing a fight with Manny Pacquiao has now gone full circle, literally, as it now seems that the fight is now back on.

Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told AFP that the fight is now signed for July 2.

“We signed the Jeff Horn contract this morning. Fight is July 2 in Brisbane, Australia,” Koncz said.

Pacquiao originally was supposed to meet Horn on April 23 in the first fight of what Top Rank was billing as a world tour for Pacquiao, but a Twitter poll done by Pacquiao changed his mind about fighting Horn and instead sought a match with Amir Khan. Horn came in dead last in Pacquiao’s poll (only getting seven percent of the more than 44,000 votes casted), but Arum wanted to have the fight between the welterweight world champion and the young Australian, regardless.

The fight was agreed by both fighters and a fight date had been set, but there was no official announcement as Top Rank promoter Bob Arum challenged the idea that Pacquiao was fighting the former world champion.

Horn, who had been getting nothing but praise from Arum, is a relative unknown fighter, but the plan for this fight being held in Horn’s native Australia is to have the fight sell tickets well into the tens of thousands. He is undefeated in his short pro career, holding a 16-0-1 record.

Pacquiao had not fought since winning the WBO middleweight title from Jessie Vargas last November.