MANILA – Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao, the reigning WBA welterweight champion, has shut the door on a possible rematch with his former tormentor Jeff Horn of Australia.
In an interview with the media, the 40-year-old Pacquiao said that the Australian fighter has blew his chance after the latter’s camp rejected their immediate rematch offer in 2017.
“Let them be. I kept asking him for a rematch to no avail. They avoided me and fought in America,” said Pacquiao, referring to Horn’s decision to face American Terence Crawford last year in Las Vegas.
“Then when I won a belt and he lost, he’s challenging me again. But when I challenged him right after I lost to him in 2017, nothing. He wouldn’t fight me,” added the eight division world boxing champion.
Horn’s decision to fight Crawford has backfired as he was easily stopped by the heavily-favored American fighter to take away the WBO welterweight title he won over Pacquiao.
Horn have recently sent a feeler, through his promoter Dean Lonergan of Duco Events, for a rematch with Pacquiao following the Filipinos unanimous decision win over Adrien Broner last month.
“Given Pacman’s last two fights, a destruction of (Lucas) Matthysse and an easy win over Broner, Manny has shown he has plenty of gas left in the tank. It also shows that Jeff horn didn’t beat an old Manny Pacquiao,” said Lonergan.
Horn was the unanimous winner for the three judges (115-113, 115-113, 117-111) over Pacquiao in their first encounter on July 2, 2017 where the Aussie boxer used his dirty tricks like headlocking, elbowing, headbutting and clinching to gain leverage over the latter.
In a review done by the WBO-created five-man panel, three of the five judges has ruled Horn as the winner (115-113, 114-113, 114-113), one scored it for Pacquiao (114-113) and another one saw it as 114-all./PN
