“The Battle of Brisbane” finally has a US television home. For the first time in over a decade, a Manny Pacquiao fight will be available without paying extra for a pay per view card. The fight will air at 9 PM Eastern on July 1st and feature a full slate of undercard bouts.
The last time Manny Pacquiao (59-6-2, 28 KOs) fought without an extra pay per view price was in 2005 against Hector Velasquez. Here he defends his WBO welterweight title against Australian welterweight prospect Jeff Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs). Stateside the fight is viewed as way too much, too soon for the promising but yet untested Horn. In Australia, however, this may be the biggest fight in the nation’s history. The fight is expected to sell out Brisbane’s SunCorp Stadium which has a capacity of 55,000 and do record TV numbers.
For my money, Horn is a quality prospect who is probably four or so fights away from being worthy a of a title eliminator. I do not think he is ready for any of the top welterweights yet, however, let alone Manny Pacquiao who, even at 38 and somewhat forgotten, still has a strong case for being the top welterweight in the world. Jeff Horn is talented and fighting in his hometown, however, while Manny Pacquiao is at the age where his ability to compete is due to fall of a cliff any day now, so there is at least a baseline level of intrigue here.
Veteran ESPN broadcasters Joe Tessitore and Teddy Atlas will be joined in the booth by three time Pacquiao opponent Timothy Bradley. The card will also feature Shane Mosley Jr. (10-1, 7 KOs) versus Australian David Toussaint (10-0, 8 KOs), Irish super prospect Michael Conlan (2-0, 2 KOs) in a typical early career showcase fight, and IBF super flyweight titlist Jerwin Ancajas (26-1-1, 17 KOs) defending against Teiru Kinoshita (25-1-1, 8 KOs) of Japan in the co-feature.
Thanks to an odd early afternoon fight time on Sunday in Australia and the 14 hour time difference, this will air Saturday night in prime time at 9 PM eastern in the United States. Major props to Top Rank for pulling off such a surprisingly excellent television deal in the United States for a card that had seemed all but dead in the water here.
