By Keith Idec

If the Manny Pacquiao-Jeff Horn fight Saturday night isn’t competitive or entertaining, Bob Arum says the public should blame him.

The Hall-of-Fame promoter pushed for this welterweight title fight to take place after watching Horn win against Ali Funeka from a ringside seat December 10 in Auckland, New Zealand. Horn (16-0-1, 11 KOs), a big underdog who’s essentially anonymous among American boxing fans, survived a third-round knockdown to stop South Africa’s Funeka (39-6-3, 31 KOs) in the sixth round on the Joseph Parker-Andy Ruiz undercard six months ago.

The faded Funeka was 38 when Horn defeated him. Nevertheless, that victory convinced Arum – whose company, Top Rank Inc., promotes Pacquiao – that he should bring a Pacquiao-Horn fight to Horn’s hometown of Brisbane, Australia.

They’re expected to box before a crowd that could exceed 60,000 at Suncorp Stadium, where the fight will begin early Sunday afternoon local time.

The 29-year-old Horn is the No. 1-ranked contender for Pacquiao’s WBO welterweight title, but was rated No. 2 when the fight was finalized. The 38-year-old Pacquiao (58-6-2, 38 KOs) is listed as a 6-1 favorite over Horn by most Internet and Las Vegas sports books.

“This is not a case where my matchmakers picked out a fighter and put him in a fight,” Arum said during a conference call Tuesday night. “This is a case where I saw the kid fight myself in New Zealand, as the [main] undercard [bout before] the Parker-Ruiz fight. I’m telling you this kid can fight, he’s a strong kid and he’s gonna give Manny a run for his money.

“Is he necessarily gonna beat Manny? No, but he will make it a very, very competitive fight. Now I didn’t have to say this, so it’s on me, that the results of this fight and how it turns out is not on [Top Rank matchmaker] Bruce Trampler, it’s not on [Top Rank matchmaker] Brad Goodman. It’s on Bob Arum, because I believe that Jeff Horn is competitive, very competitive, with Manny Pacquiao and it’ll be a hell of a fight.”

ESPN will televise the Pacquiao-Horn fight live Saturday night in the United States as part of a four-fight telecast set to start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.