Bob Arum: Horn-Crawford still on course, Pacquiao wants to fight in April

Bob Arum has made clear his preferred road map for Jeff Horn, who scored an upset of the Year when he rumbled his way to the judges’ hearts and a W over Manny Pacquiao in Australia this summer, for a few months.

Arum’s GPS plotting: Fight Gary Corcoran, defend the WBO 147 belt, and then next take a giant step up the ladder against Terence Crawford and welcome Bud to a division seven pounds north.

Horn, an Aussie who has invigorated that region’s interest in prizefighting, cooperated by besting the game Brit Corcoran last week. But is the WBO belt holder going to adhere to the Arum map...or look to try and deviate from the plotted course?

A Horn vs Anthony Mundine tango has come up here and there.

Has Arum heard about that? Nah, Arum told me, the plan is as it was.

“As we discussed last week in Brisbane, it’s all set, it’s contractual, Horn versus Terence Crawford,” he said. “And we have a meeting at my house, all the Top Rank executives, on Thursday, to lay out dates, prospective dates for Manny Pacquiao, who through adviser Michael Koncz said that he’s wanting to fight in April. And then Manny’s going to Korea, I think, so we will wait to proceed further until he gets back.”

Any Pacmaniacs out there want to pipe up, offer The Bobfather and his crew your visions for Manny’s near fighting future?

Follow Woods on Twitter