BRISBANE • Australian challenger Jeff Horn has made a massive blunder by not training against superior sparring partners in the United States in preparation for Sunday's title fight, according to Manny Pacquiao's team members.
The legendary 38-year-old Filipino, one of the greatest fighters of his generation, is widely tipped to overcome the unbeaten Horn in front of an expected 50,000 people at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium.
Pacquiao's Australian strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune said yesterday that the "Fighting Schoolteacher" has not done his homework and will be outclassed in the WBO welterweight fight by the eight-weight world champion.
"Manny is one of the greats and Jeff Horn is in a different league," former heavyweight Fortune said. "If Manny puts his mind to it he destroys anybody in the world. He's busted up some of the greats. Jeff Horn is the guy to knock out and we're in the hurt business."
Fortune, who once fought against Lennox Lewis, said Horn should have spent eight weeks in the US against the best available sparring partners.
"Then you might have given him a real shot if he'd been training with A-grade guys all the time," he said. "Instead he's been using (Filipino) Czar Amonsot as a sparring partner and he is nowhere near as fast as Manny. Horn won't know what hit him because Manny is that quick."
Fortune said he gave Horn no chance of causing a major upset.
Horn defended his training strategy, saying he was more than happy using Amonsot, who is ranked No. 3 with the World Boxing Association at junior welterweight (63kg).
"It's very hard for anyone to copy the style of Pacquiao but we got the closest thing out there that we could," Horn said. "I've definitely sparred the best I ever have for this preparation."
Horn said that, while Pacquiao might be faster than him, he had an awkward style that the Filipino has not faced before.
"My style will give him problems and it's a matter of timing him so that I can make him miss and land my hard shots," he said.
Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 knockouts) is one of the greats of boxing, while Horn, 29, has won 16 of his 17 bouts with one draw.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
