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Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn, Manny Pacquiao-Mike Alvarado PPV headed to Las Vegas

Photo by Alecs Ongcal
Fighters Network
15
Feb

Top Rank’s first foray on pay-per-view with ESPN is headed to Las Vegas.

The card was originally slated for Sin City before Top Rank ran into a scheduling conflict with the NHL’s expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights and their upcoming playoff run.

The April 14 show featuring Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao-Mike Alvarado was being planned for Madison Square Garden, but with shows in consecutive weeks at Barclays Center to follow, the venue has again changed.

Arum told ESPN that Mandalay Bay is the new home of Crawford’s welterweight debut, a title shot against Horn.



“Mandalay Bay is a great venue and we’re happy to put this card on there,” Arum said. “You’ve got a lot of boxing in New York coming up, so it made sense to move the fight to Las Vegas when Mandalay Bay became available.”

Horn (18-0-1, 12 knockouts) upset Pacquiao via controversial decision in Top Ranks’s first show on ESPN, and then defended it successfully against Gary Corcoran in December.

The Australian will be a major underdog in his American debut, though, his first fight outside Australia.

Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) is THE RING’s No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter and he looked marvelous on his way to becoming undisputed junior welterweight champion. The Omaha, Nebraska, native knocked out Julius Indongo in August to annex all four belts, but now he’s on to the more glamorous 147-pound weight class.

Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) is an all-time great, but at 39, he’s well past his best days. Even though most observers believed he handily beat Horn, the Filipino senator hardly resembled the athlete whose blinding speed and tremendous power carried him to titles in a record eight weight classes.

Alvarado (38-4, 26 KOs) appears to be the perfect foil to make Pacquiao look great. The Denver native made a name in his all-action fights with Brandon Rios, but since suffering three consecutive defeats, he’s looked like a shell of his former self and has even struggled with journeymen.

If Pacquiao is finally going to score another knockout, his first since a 12th-round knockout of Miguel Cotto in 2009, it will have to come against Alvarado, a limited fighter who is there to be hit.

Mike Coppinger is the Senior Writer for RingTV.com. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeCoppinger

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