WBO welterweight titleholder Jeff Horn will have the normal easy, victory lap sort of first defense of his title on December 13th when he meets lightly regarded British challenger Gary Corcoran. The Australian will defend at home in Brisbane and the fight has now been picked up by ESPN who will show it live in the early hours of the morning in America.
Jeff Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs) was a known prospect before his matchup with Manny Pacquiao, but that fight was still a massive steps up from the likes of faded versions of Ali Funeka and Randall Bailey. While Horn, 29, fought well in July against the Filipino all time great, few felt Horn deserved the home town decision that he walked away with. It was a competitive fight at times though and Horn ended up with the WBO title regardless of what we think.
26 year old British non-contender Gary Corcoran (17-1, 7 KOs) failed in his only step up fight by getting stopped in eleven last July in a British title shot against Liam Williams. He fought twice in 2017, first stopping a complete tomato can and then narrowly edging a split decision over unbeaten but largely unknown 35 year old Nigerian Larry Ekundayo. Somehow this got him a title shot, but I guess Corcoran not being world level is the entire point. These victory lap first title defenses are par for the course in boxing now.
Because of the time zone difference, this fight will air at 6:30 AM on December 13th. That is a Wednesday morning. No undercard fights have been announced, but I doubt the American network will have much interest in anything else on the show. This broadcast will fall under the Top Rank on ESPN banner despite there being no Top Rank promoted fighter. It seems clear that Arum is looking to side promote Horn as an opponent for one of his fighters, almost guaranteed to be either Manny Pacquiao or Terrence Crawford.
