Mundine warned of hefty penalty

ANTHONY Mundine could be slugged with more than $ 1 million in fines if he fails to make the agreed weight for his mooted showdown with Jeff Horn.

The fight, Horn’s first since losing his world title to highly rated American Terence Crawford, is all but locked in for November 30 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.

It is expected to be officially confirmed sometime over the coming days.

A verbal agreement has finally been reached between the two camps over the weight limit with heavy financial penalties to be imposed if Mundine balloons out on fight night.

After weeks of negotiations, a catchweight of 71kg has been settled upon for the anticipated bout.

Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton said that was already a major concession, considering his charge has never fought above welterweight ( 66.68kg) in his career and Mundine’s last outing was at middleweight ( 72.57kg).

Both fighters will need to weigh in for a second time one hour before the fight and must come under 75kg.

If not, they will be fined $ 20,000 per 100g over the limit for the first 500g, then $ 50,000 for every 100g they go beyond that.

So if Mundine was to enter the ring at 77.5kg, for example, he would be fined about $ 1.1 million.

“That definitely is a heck of an incentive to make the weight on the night,” Rushton said.

“I could definitely see this happening – we walk out there on the night, Jeff walks in at 70- 71kg and Mundine walks in at 80kg.

“( We) can’t afford to be giving away eight, nine, or even 10kg against a multiple world champion like Anthony Mundine.”

Rushton is hopeful the fight will be the first “stepping stone” for Horn as he aims to propel himself back into the world title picture after suffering his first career loss against Crawford in Las Vegas in June this year.

The grand plan is to lure Crawford to Suncorp Stadium for a rematch sometime late next year.

But given Mundine is just about considered a spent force at 43 years old, Horn needs a commanding win to have any chance of that hugely ambitious dream becoming any sort of reality.

“If I want to get back on top of the world stage again I need to beat Mundine well,” Horn said.