BRISBANE, Australia -- It may not draw the global audience quite like his fight against Manny Pacquiao, but when Jeff Horn steps into the ring with Gary Corcoran on Wednesday night, the pressure on the Australian boxer will have increased at least a dozen notches.
Five months ago Horn stunned the boxing fraternity when he claimed a controversial unanimous points decision over Pacquiao in front of a packed Suncorp Stadium.
Horn entered that fight as a rank outsider with many experts tipping he wouldn't last six rounds against the Filipino legend. Horn, however, surpassed all expectations and went toe-to-toe with Pacquiao for 12 grueling rounds before announcer Michael Buffer declared the baby-faced Australian the new WBO welterweight champion.
In the immediate aftermath of the fight, social media was flooded with two critical viewpoints. First, the decision was incorrect; many felt the 11-time world champion had done more than enough to retain his crown, particularly after a dominant ninth round during which he had Horn on the ropes and the bout was almost ended through stoppage.
Second, there were those claiming Pacquiao was too old, too slow and a shadow of his former dominant self, despite having overcome Jessie Vargas for the welterweight title seven months earlier.
Glenn Rushton, Horn's trainer and lifelong friend, said he was sick of people discrediting his man's stunning achievement.
"It's really frustrating. People come out and say he was a shell of his former self. He wasn't a shell, look how he destroyed Vargas before that," Rushton said. "If [Pacquiao] had come out and beaten Jeff the same way, nobody would have said that.
"Yeah, Manny is getting toward the end of the career, but it's not that he's spent. Jeff's a great fighter and I think he is bound for much greater things than just that fight."
It's hard to argue Horn wasn't ultra impressive against Pacquiao. The former school teacher is a tough, determined and gritty fighter, and he's now unquestionably Australia's hottest boxer.
A rematch was slated for November, before senatorial duties for Pacquiao forced it to be postponed, leaving 2018 British traveller Corcoran (17-1 7 KOs) as Horn's first title challenger.
The 27-year-old London-based boxer doesn't boast the profile of the sport's biggest names, living out of a caravan with his wife and 2-year-old daughter.
"We looked around the world for what would be a great fight for Jeff and we settled on Gary for a whole lot of reasons," DUCO events promoter Dean Lonergan said. "He's fit, he's tough, he's ripped to shreds and durable as heck.
"He's lost one fight out of the 18 he's had and he only lost because he broke his hand in the fourth round, continued through to the 11th before it was stopped on TKO."
The contrast between Horn's two title fights in 2017 is astounding.
He had absolutely nothing to lose against Pacquiao and he knew it. This time, there's far more riding on the result given he's expected to win comfortably.
A loss would reduce Horn to one-fight-wonder status and many would continue to question how he got the nod against Pacquiao. But more significant would be the damage it would do to his career and the dream of fighting some of the sport's biggest names in Las Vegas.
Without disrespecting Corcoran, a win for Horn isn't going to make a significant difference on his CV. But it won't close any doors, either.
"There's a lot of talk about the winner facing Terrance Crawford, who is pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world," Lonergan said on Monday.
Not only is a fight with Crawford on the cards, but the winner could likely face Pacquiao or former super lightweight champion Amir Khan.
Realistic or not, Horn has even loftier expectations having flagged his interest in fighting the now-retired Floyd Mayweather as well as his "Money Fight" opponent Conor McGregor.
If Horn's career is to progress in the right direction, he must walk out of the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday night with his undefeated record in tact.
"I wanted the title so badly [when I fought Pacquiao] and now I'm looking at myself in the mirror and seeing Gary Corcoran as me trying to do what I did," Horn said. "So I have to stop you from doing what I did to the last champion.
"We don't want to just become a world champion, we want to become a legend in the sport. You don't do that by winning once and then losing the next fight, so I've still got that hunger to win out there."