Get to the end of the line, Man
BAD boy Adrien Broner is the prime target to be Jeff Horn’s next opponent, although the Horn camp will consider a fight with Anthony Mundine if money and rankings aren’t in their favour.
Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan said a fight against Mundine appealed to him as much as “drinking 10 cups of warm sick”.
Broner, a controversial figure who has been arrested numerous times and regularly causes a stir with his outlandish comments, has an impressive record (33-1-3, 24KO, 1 no contest).
But he has pleaded not guilty to sexual battery from an incident in February, was charged but not convicted of choking a waitress in a nightclub in 2016, and arrested for failure to appear in court, with no
conviction recorded. Broner has a love-hate relationship with his mentor Floyd Mayweather, who was barred from entering Australia after being jailed for domestic violence.
Broner’s record could make it difficult for him to get into Australia to face Horn, and Lonergan will be exploring those hurdles this week.
“I’m keen to stick in the welterweight division and keen to stick with guys who give Jeff a good challenge,” Lonergan said.
“Jessie Vargas, Adrien Broner, the winner of [Shawn] Porter vs [Danny] Garcia, that would be a potentially great fight for Jeff.
“One fight that appeals to me like drinking 10 cups of warm sick is Anthony Mundine. I see he’s been mentioned so many times in the media. I don’t have a lot of interest in it.
“Right at the start we were tasked with wanting the big fights. While Mundine may be a big-money fight, it’s not exactly going to cover Jeff’s career in glory.”
Horn also sees Broner or Vargas, who is world-rated by the WBA, WBC and IBF, as opponents to consider above Mundine.
“We’re not sure. We’re looking at possible Vargas and Broner fights, so we’ll just what happens,” said Horn, who was sporting two badly damaged eyes after his ninth-round stoppage defeat to Terence Crawford at the MGM Grand.
It was the first professional defeat for Horn (18-1-1, 12KO).
“You win some, you lose some,’’ Horn said. “I still feel like I have plenty more to prove. Good on Crawford, he’s done very well, but the loss isn’t going to be the end of me.”
Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton said the Mundine fight could happen if Australian fans demanded it.
“I’m going to sit down with Dean and discuss maybe Broner, and maybe the winner between Porter and Garcia would be a great fight,” Rushton said.
“I’m not saying no [to Mundine], I’m not saying yes, I’m saying maybe. What I look at is that Jeff Horn wins that fight, hands down, there’s no question whatsoever. He wasn’t far off Crawford and I think who is second behind Crawford is probably daylight.
“Mundine is no Crawford. We’d still train hard if we did that fight. Whether that is the best move is something we have to work out.
“We’re here in this sport to fight the big fights, and to me that is a warm-up fight really. But if Australia said we want to see that fight, it could be a changing of the guard.”