Mundine chasing fitness differently
ANTHONY Mundine channelled his inner Rocky Balboa and chased wild emus and chickens to prepare for his clash with Jeff Horn in Brisbane.
Mundine, 43, must drop a further 4kg to reach the 71kg limit for the River City Rumble at Suncorp Stadium on November 30. The polarising boxer went bush, to Baryulgil, where his father Tony grew up, as part of a renewed conditioning program to shed weight like a “professional”.
“What have I done differently? Well, I’ve been chasing emus,” Mundine said.
“What … you think I’m joking? Chasing emus and chasing chickens; I’m doing a lot of things different this fight.
“I’m a black fella. Chasing emus on foot, goannas, everything … what we catch on the land, if we don’t eat it, we let it go, otherwise, eat it and get some good bush tucker.”
Sylvester Stallone’s character Balboa famously chased chickens in Rocky II to train for his nemesis Apollo Creed.
Mundine will turn his attention to Horn after two more “hard sparring” sessions.
He also vowed to make the weight, not willing to pay the hefty weight penalty. Mundine would forfeit up to $350,000 for being one kilogram over, and then slugged $50,000 for every 100 grams thereafter.
Both Mundine and Horn, who must be 71kg at the official weigh in, have agreed to jump on the scales again two hours before the fight with neither allowed to be more than 75kg.