Champ eyeing money match
JEFF Horn was having 11 stitches in three cuts over his eyes yesterday but said multimillion-dollar paydays to face Anthony Mundine and American Terence Crawford would soon ease the pain.
Horn and his heavily pregnant wife Jo were yesterday celebrating Wednesday night’s WBO world welterweight title victory over brave English challenger Gary Corcoran with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Major Events Minister Kate Jones.
The “Fighting Schoolteacher’’ has a wealth of possibilities for a multimilliondollar future. The Queensland Government is also keen to stage a rematch at Suncorp Stadium with Manny Pacquiao.
Horn’s gruelling victory by an 11th-round TKO over Corcoran at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre earned him $1 million but he will make much more than that for his next bout.
While he has a huge Las Vegas fight planned against Crawford in April, Horn says he is considering a fight with Mundine first for “easy money’’.
“I want to fight the best in the world and while some people might think fighting Mundine is a step backwards or a circus, it could actually make more money for me than a harder fight against Crawford,’’ Horn said.
“More reward for less risk is good business.
“Mundine is 42 now and he should have retired after his last fight against Danny Green. He’s past his best and if it can make a huge payday, I’d be mad not to fight him before a Crawford bout.’’
While Horn has been offered $2 million to face the former world champ and ex-NRL star, his trainer Glenn Rushton believes he can push the offer up by several more million to give Horn the biggest payday ever for an Australian fighter.
Terence Crawford is unbeaten in 32 fights and regarded by many experts as the world’s best fighter pound-forpound.
Rushton’s preference for 2018 is a rematch with Pacquiao, followed by a “warm up’’ fight with Mundine and then the fight with Crawford at the end of the year.
“I would like Jeff to have another fight before facing Crawford,’’ Rushton said.
“But Crawford is the mandatory challenger for Jeff’s WBO title and if we have to fight him next we will – and we have the plan to beat him.”