Mundine’s blood up at weigh-in
Attack starts before a punch is thrown Mundine throws first swing
ANTHONY Mundine bares his teeth and snarls like a tiger as he thinks about pouncing on a wounded Jeff Horn tonight at Suncorp Stadium and then ripping him apart.
All the lean, sinewy muscles in Mundine’s chest, neck and arms bulge with menace.
The names of his five children, tattooed on his arms, neck and over his heart, dance about as though in agreement as he says Horn will be exposed.
Mundine, who away from the spotlight, is surprisingly quiet and reserved in contrast to his brash public persona, seems to morph into a different creature as he explains his shape shifting.
His eyes shine brightly as a deep fire burns within and he snaps: “I’m a different beast man. I’m like a wounded animal. A caged tiger. Horn and the cats with him have underestimated me.’’
Mundine, 43, was explaining how a rugby league star who first played for the St George Dragons 25 years ago at 86kg could squeeze his body down to 70.25kg yesterday to face Horn, a hungry destroyer 13 years his junior.
In an ugly confrontation yesterday Mundine went straight for the jugular grabbing Horn around the neck at the official weigh-in for tonight’s Suncorp showdown.
Mundine faced a $1 million penalty yesterday if he was more than 2kg over the 71kg limit for the fight and showed he was not ready to concede cash or kudos. He was 300g lighter than Horn on 70.55kg.
The two fighters were eyeballing each other after stepping off the scales when Mundine suddenly grabbed Horn by the chin and throat.
“I’m ready to kill man,’’ Mundine said, with a look of wild desperation.
He claimed he had “nothing personal’’ against Horn but that the Fighting Schoolteacher represented “white privilege in Australia’’.
“He represents injustice,’’ Mundine said. “He stands for all the things I’m against. He wants to wave the flag, he wants to play the anthem. He doesn’t even understand what all that means.’’
Horn refused to retaliate against Mundine’s attack yesterday, saying he was saving his punches for the fight.
Even though Australia’s greatest boxer Jeff Fenech said Mundine had come in too light and would suffer as a result, Mundine said: “I wanted to be this light. It just makes me hungrier and more explosive.”