Preview: Horn vs Mundine – Two Australian Champions Face Off

The River City Rumble takes place tonight as former World champions Jeff Horn and Anthony Mundine collide.

Brisbane-born Horn will feel more than comfortable at Suncorp Stadium, the site of his famous and controversial win against Manny Pacquiao.

A man no stranger to controversy is his opponent.

In what is being billed as Mundine’s last fight, this looks set to be the end of a colourful chapter in Australian boxing history, with many pages written by the man known as ‘Choc’.

Despite achieving so much in his storied career, the bookies have Mundine as the underdog, paying around 5 to 1 odds.

That should be no surprise, at 43, he’s 13 years older than Horn.

Though Mundine is coming off a win, and Horn suffered a one-sided defeat in his last bout, the levels of their last opponents are light-years apart.

Horn last travelled to Las Vegas to take on Terence Crawford, the man many believe to be one of the greatest active boxers in the world today.

Mundine last fought Tommy Browne in Sydney, if you don’t know who that is, don’t worry, neither does Wikipedia.

The bout is scheduled for 12 rounds and set for a 9:30pm (AEST) start, with a 71kg catchweight the middle ground for the two fighters.

Mundine is traditionally a middleweight to super-middleweight fighter, while the lighter Horn fights at welterweight.

If this fight took place when both were at their peak, Mundine would surely be the favourite then.

Ironically, Horn wanted this fight years ago, before he took on Pacquiao.

Mundine may not have been at his peak then either, but he would’ve definitely been favoured against Horn who was relatively unknown at the time.

Both fighters now have a reason to put on this bout.

Mundine wants to go out fighting the best of the next generation of Australian fighters.

Horn wants to get back on the horse after the former school teacher was absolutely schooled by Crawford.

As with any Mundine fight, the talk leading up to tonight’s battle has been constant, but it was Horn who seemingly got inside Mundine’s head when he whispered something in the boxing veteran’s ear at the weigh-ins, causing Choc to lash out and grab Horn’s throat.

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Horn should and needs to have the last laugh after tonight, but if Mundine can cause an upset, love him or hate him, he’ll go down as one of the best Australian sportsmen of all time.

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