Manny Pacquiao’s rematch with Jeff Horn has been confirmed for Brisbane later this year. Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk had earlier threatened to pull funding without confirmation from the Pacquiao camp but said he had been reassured at a meeting with promoters on Monday.

“I need to know we definitely have a fighter coming from the Philippines to fight Brisbane’s world champion Jeff Horn and I need to know that fighter is Manny Pacquiao.

“I’m not going to shadow box the fight promoters — I want some straight answers to the question of is Manny in the boxing ring in Brisbane in November or is he in retirement.

‘But I have had a meeting earlier today which has confirmed that Manny Pacquiao will definitely be in Brisbane this year for a rematch with Jeff Horn,’ Quirk said.
The fight is expected to be held in November at the same Suncorp Stadium where a packed crowd of 50,000 saw former school teacher Horn upset Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight belt in an unanimous 12-round decision last month.

Quirk said Brisbane Marketing, the city council’s major events subsidiary, would be re-engaged for negotiations with promoters Top Rank and Duco Events.

‘It was a matter of Manny Pacquiao deciding whether he wanted to take up that clause in the contract to give a rematch in the event that he lost,’ Quirk added.

Horn’s surprise win over 38-year-old Pacquiao caused controversy, with many observers outraged by the decision.

But a WBO scoring review later endorsed the Australian as the rightful winner.