CHOC-FUL CAREER CLOSING
TODAY is the 9238th and final day of Anthony Mundine’s remarkable sporting career.
He’ll spend it feeding his chocolate addiction with Caramello and Maltesers, praying, watching YouTube highlights of his career, the new Creed II movie and driving himself to Suncorp Stadium for the showdown with Jeff Horn.
When it all started a quarter of a century ago, Paul Keating was prime minister, a schooner of beer cost $2.10 and the average Sydney house price was $124,000.
On Sunday afternoon, August 15, 1993, his teammates in the St George Dragons side on his rugby league first grade debut included the long-retired Mark Coyne, Gorden Tallis, Andrew Walker, Brad Mackay, Phil Blake and Mick Potter. Mundine wore jersey No.17 from the bench.
Somehow Mundine, 43, has kept going in the toughest, most physically demanding sports of them all.
Golfers and jockeys have all gone longer but no one in such brutal sporting environments as rugby league and boxing.
We rave about the longevity of champions such as tennis player Roger Federer, yet he’s six years younger and hasn’t endured anywhere near the same physical punishment.
Mundine has made the weight comfortably and he has had 48 hours to restore all his strength.
His mum will today make a steamed salmon and brown rice dish that he will take to the stadium to eat two hours before the fight.
Normally before a fight Mundine is surrounded by his closest mates.
He’ll usually have as many as a dozen in his entourage from Moree to Macksville. This time he’s staying in Brisbane on his own.
Tennis brat Bernard Tomic was supposed to arrive from the Gold Coast and walk out to the ring with Mundine.
The pair met on reality TV show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! early this year but a reunion now seems unlikely.
Tomic hasn’t been sighted.