Getty Manny Pacquiao looks for his 60th professional win when he takes on Jeff Horn
For those in the United States, Manny Pacquiao is coming to network television.
For the first time since September of 2005, Pac-Man’s fight will be on a non-PPV USA broadcast when his bout against Jeff Horn is televised live on ESPN Saturday night (Sunday afternoon in Australia, where the fight is taking place). It’s an interesting pivot by Top Rank, and there are a lot of different ways you can read into it, but when it comes down to it, one of the most popular boxers in the history of the sport will have a very accessible fight for everyone this weekend.
Here’s everything you need to know to watch:
Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn Viewing Info
Date & Time, Local: Sunday, July 2, 2017, at 11 a.m. (main event around 1:30 p.m.)
Date & Time, United States: Saturday, July 1, 2017, at 9 p.m. ET (main event around 11:30 p.m.)
Date & Time, UK: Sunday, July 2, 2017, at 2 a.m. (main event around 4:30 a.m.)
Date & Time, Philippines: Sunday, July 2, 2017, at 9 a.m. (main event around 11:30 a.m.)
TV Channel, United States: ESPN
TV Channel, UK: BoxNation
TV Channel, Philippines: ABS-CBN
Card:
Welterweight: Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn
Super Flyweight: Jerwin Ancajas vs. Teiru Kinoshita
Light Heavyweight: Umar Salamov vs. Damien Hooper
Middleweight: Shane Mosley Jr. vs. David Toussaint
Featherweight: Michael Conlan vs. Jarrett Owen
Super Lightweight: Jonel Dapidran vs. Brent Dames
Super Bantamweight: Brock Jarvis vs. Rasmanudin
Preview
Pacquiao may be 38 years old, fighting on network television and nearing the end of his brilliant career, but he’s still easily one of the best welterweights in the world. Following his loss to Floyd Mayweather, he has defeated two good opponents–Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas–via unanimous decision to run his record to 59-6-2.
“The Hornet,” meanwhile, enters at 16-0-1 and is coming off an impressive 2016 in which he finished Randall Bailey, Rico Mueller and Ali Funeka all via early stoppage, but he has yet to really fight a true welterweight contender. As such, Pacquiao stands as a huge -600 favorite.
If the Filipino Senator does win as expected, Top Rank CEO Bob Arum explained what could be next.
“Now if he beats Horn and if he looks good beating Horn, then, down the road, there’s Terence Crawford, there’s [Errol] Spence. He will go into those fights. But those fights become very, very expensive and we can’t do them on free television. We have to do them on pay-per-view in order to pay the fighters what the fighters would want in a fight like that.”
In other words, enjoy seeing Pacquiao on ESPN while you can. Because it’s not likely to happen again.