Be different next time.
GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Manny Pacquiao isn’t calling it quits just yet as the Filipino star virtually agreed to exercise a rematch clause with Australian conqueror Jeff Horn for a chance to redeem himself following his 12-round unanimous decision loss over the weekend in Brisbane.
“We’ll have a rematch,” Pacquiao told a couple of Manila-based scribes who covered his fight with Horn before over 51,000 fans at Suncorp Stadium last Sunday.
A provision in the contract he and Horn signed last April calls for a second meeting in the event Pacquiao loses. The target date is November with Suncorp Stadium at the forefront anew as venue given the Queensland government’s full support.
Had Pacquiao emerged victorious, Horn wasn’t entitled to the same privilege.
Pacquiao is so determined to erase the stigma of the Horn setback that he is willing to travel to the lion’s den to prove his point.
“Even if the fight is held there, I’ll fight him (again),” said Pacquiao, who turns 39 in December.
Pacquiao lost 117-111 and 115-113 (twice) on the judges’ scoresheets to surrender his World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
“It was really close but I can’t believe the score of the third judge…115-113 is okay,” said Pacquiao, admitting that it could have gone either way.
Ringsiders from around the world assailed the scoring but there were also those who thought the 29-year-old former schoolteacher and massive underdog deserved the victory.
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, who thought Pacquiao would easily dispose of Horn, was so embarrassed by the result that he is talking about telling his No. 1 fighter to think about retirement.
But Roach insists that should Pacquiao pursue a rematch, he would advise that, regardless of the outcome, that would be his last fight.
Pacquiao, who now has lost four of his last nine fights stretching back to 2012, believes that he erred in his assessment of Horn.
“I was trying hard to knock him out with one or just two punches that’s why there were not many combinations (thrown),” he said.
“I thought I could do it (knock him out with one punch),” Pacquiao said.
Horn had been billed as a tuneup for Pacquiao, who was eyeing a rematch with Floyd Mayweather in 2018.
Inexperienced and robotic, Horn came out of his corner looking unbelievably different from the guy Pacquiao was supposed to overwhelm with his speed and power.
Instead, Horn immediately issued a strong message that Pacquiao would be in for a rough and rugged night.
But Pacquiao vows that he learned a painful lesson in Australia and that he will eventually get even with Horn.
“You’ll see,” said Pacquiao as his guests stared, hoping that those words would become prophetic.
