Matthysse must do a Jeff Horn to beat Pacquiao

MANILA, Philippines — Manny Pacquiao’s strength coach put himself in the shoes of Lucas Matthysse, and tried to figure out what the Argentine champion must do to stand a better chance inside the ring on July 15.

He saw a dirty fight.

“I think Matthysse will try to do what Jeff Horn did – rough him up, headbutts, elbows,” said Justin Fortune as Pacquiao wrapped up what looked like an easy day at the Elorde Gym last Saturday.

Matthysse, 35, four years younger, is puncher, and the best way for him to be effective is for him to stand close to Pacquiao – and fight like Horn.

The WBA welterweight champion may pick up from where Horn left in that cold day in July in Brisbane, where Pacquiao was bullied and stripped of his crown.

“If I was fighting Manny I’d try to do exactly the same thing Jeff Horn did. Rough him up and put Manny on the ropes. But we’re planning for that,” said Fortune, who flew in three days ago.

“Matthysse is an aggressive fighter and he’s a puncher. And he needs to be this close to Manny,” he told The STAR.

With his hands, Fortune motioned that Matthysse must be 12 inches close to Pacquiao to land his punches.

“That close,” he said.

Pacquiao would welcome Matthysse as close to him as possible.

Other lessons were learned in the fight against the former schoolteacher from Brisbane, and one that’s as important as the others is that Pacquiao must not overtrain for this one.

“To some extent, we overtrained (for Horn). Three weeks before the fight we did a ridiculous amount of rounds. And he burned himself out,” he said.

Otherwise, it would have been an easy fight as the Pacquiao camp had expected.

“That fight should have been done in four to five rounds. But even if we were overtrained, I think we still won the fight, and so does the rest of the world,” said the former heavyweight contender from Australia.