Horn on brink of record rumble

THE Aussie Rocky, Brisbane schoolteacher Jeff Horn, is about to knock out Anthony Mundine and Danny Green as the biggest box office hit in Australian sporting history.

Sunday’s Battle of Brisbane at Suncorp Stadium will be a $30 million extravaganza from corporate and public tickets sales, a record pay-per-view audience on Foxtel’s Main Event, sponsorship and a multi-million dollar Queensland tourism grant.

It is bigger than an NRL or AFL grand final because of TV customers paying $59.95 to watch the local underdog against one of boxing’s greatest champions, Manny Pacquiao.

Mundine and Green’s record of around 200,000 payper-view customers has stood since their first fight at Allianz Stadium in 2006.

A Main Event source says sales for the Horn-Pacquiao super fight are now on track to surpass those numbers.

Foxtel has hired more than 1000 operators to cope with the demand on Sunday morning when traditionally 80 per cent of subscriptions are sold.

“The expectations are we smash all records,” promoter Dean Lonergan said.

“This is already far and away the biggest fight in Australian boxing history.”

Unlike the recent MundineGreen fight in Adelaide when coverage was illegally streamed on Facebook, security measures are in place this time to prevent it from happening.

“Piracy is always a concern,” Lonergan said. “But Foxtel have got global security experts on the case to stop it from happening again. We’ll be incredibly vigilant in policing it.”

Of the $30 million in revenue, local boy Horn will get a set fee of $500,000 plus incentives from the final ticket numbers that should take his earnings up towards $800,000.

Not bad for a guy who lives in a $300,000 house and drives an old Toyota Corolla.

Pacquiao, the 11-time world champion, is rumoured to get $10 million, win, lose or draw.

This fight is a box office smash-hit without the usual build-up of taunts, trash talk or threats to sit down during the national anthem.

Horn, the 28-year-old local who took up boxing to protect himself from school bullies, has captured the hearts and imagination of the entire state.