Downunder Wrap-Up: "Pacman"Pacquiao and Horn, O'Connell withdraws, Flanagan challenges Lebedev, Big Daddy is back, Haumono vs. Adamek in Poland

WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao ramped up training this week ahead of the Battle of Brisbane against Australia’s Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium on July 2.

Pacquiao has been working on his core fitness with assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez at the Elorde Gym in Manila, Philippines, with the eight division titleholder currently at 60% fitness, according to Fernandez. American trainer Freddie Roach and Australian strength and conditioning coach Justin Fortune arrived on Monday this week for six weeks of gruelling work to get the 38-year-old Senator into fighting shape ahead of his next fistic challenge.

And make no mistake about it, Pacquiao does see Horn as a significant challenge.

“I am not underestimating Horn,” Pacquiao told the Courier Mail. “He is a good boxer and very aggressive. A strong fighter.

“I am working on speed and a strong body for the fight but my quickness will help me beat him.”

It is not just the Filipino champion who sees speed as the key to victory. Locked away in their Stretton gym in southern Brisbane, Horn and his trainer Glenn Rushton are honing the skills that they believe will help them beat the notoriously quick-fisted Pacquiao to the punch.

“I’m training to beat Manny at his own game on July 2,” Horn told the Courier Mail. “I plan to hit Manny as fast and as hard as he has been hitting everyone else for years.”

Team Horn are working on getting current WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko out to Australia to spar 60 rounds over two weeks with the London Olympian who represented Australia in the light welterweight division.

Lomachenko, a former amateur standout with a remarkable record of 396-1, has won world titles at both 126 and 130 pounds in his brief nine fight professional career. His handspeed, angles and southpaw stance will be the perfect style to prepare Horn for Pacquiao’s blistering, in-and-out attack.

Even Pacqiuao concede it’s a smart move by Team Horn ahead of what promises to be the biggest fight in Australia’s long pugilistic history.

“Lomachenko is very fast and a southpaw and it will help (Horn) a lot,’’ Pacquiao said to XXXXXX.

“SHOTGUN” SHANNON O’CONNELL WITHDRAWS FROM WORLD TITLE FIGHT

It was a tough decision but Queensland super bantamweight “Shotgun” Shannon O’Connell has withdrawn from an opportunity to fight one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world in favour of appearing on the undercard of WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao’s world title defence against Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on July 2.

Slacks Creek resident O’Connell, 15-4-1 (7), was due to face Argentinean veteran Marcela “La Tigresa” Acuna 45-6-1 (19) for the IBF 122-pound world title on June 6 before backing up four weeks later on the historic Brisbane card. But a late scheduling change threw a spanner in the works.

“They wanted to change the date to June 16,” O’Connell told the Courier Mail. “That meant I had a decision to make between fighting Marcela and fighting on Jeff Horn’s card.

“Ultimately I wanted to be part of one of the biggest Australian boxing events.

“There have been a lot of tears over this decision.”

The Acuna fight would have been on the Argentinean’s home turf, another factor in O’Connell’s decision making. Instead the 34-year-old mother of two will face the always dangerous TBA on the untelevised portion of the card.

“It will be a non-title fight and I’m not sure who it will be against at this stage because the decision has just been made,” she said.

“The card on July 2 is pretty full so my fight won’t be televised but I just wanted to be part of it.

“I’m confident my preparation won’t be affected — I started training for July 2 initially, then upped my training for June 6 so now I’ve got three extra weeks to get ready.”

Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum was impressed with O’Connell when he saw her fight on the undercard of heavyweight Joseph Parker’s WBO world title winning effort against Andy Ruiz Jr in Auckland, New Zealand last December, singling her out for praise at a press conference earlier this year to promote the Pacquiao-Horn bout.

“For me, this all started last December in New Zealand,” Arum said. “I saw two things that caught my eye — one, there was a lady from Australia who, not only was she most attractive, but she was a tremendous fighter named Shannon O’Connell.

“I said to (Duco Events director) Dean (Lonergan) ‘you’ve got to get her back on one of these cards’.”

An impressive performance on the Pacquaio-Horn card could open a lot of doors for O’Connell to fight on Top Rank cards in the United States.

“BAM BAM” FLANAGAN LANDS TITLE SHOT AGAINST LEBEDEV

WBA #9 Mark “Bam Bam” Flanagan 22-4 (15) will get the opportunity of a lifetime when he travels to Russia to face two-time WBA cruiserweight champion Denis Lebedev 29-3 (22) on July 10.

Flanagan, a 26-year-old from Rasmussen in Queensland, holds the WBA Oceania cruiserweight title. He hasn’t lost a fight for over four years when he was on the wrong end of a split decision to New Zealand’s Daniel MacKinnon for the WBO Oriental title at light heavyweight. Flanagan holds wins over Daniel Ammann and Shane Quinn in Australian title fights.

Lebedev, a 37-year-old southpaw, added the IBF title to his WBA bauble with a second round TKO of Victor Emilio Ramirez in May 2016. Lebedev is coming off a split decision loss to reigning IBF cruiserweight champion and fellow Russian Murat Gassiev last December. The WBA Super world cruiserweight title of Lebedev was not at stake. The former IBF and WBA 200-pound champion’s only losses have come in world title bouts.

It is going to be a big ask for Flanagan to win on the road, but as Guillermo Jones showed in his 11th round KO of the Russian in 2013, Lebedev can be hurt and busted up and stopped.