Mundine heartbroken over NRL club's fight-night 'insult'
Anthony Mundine’s 18-year professional boxing career came crashing to an embarrassing end at the hands of Jeff Horn on Friday night, but it was a snub from an NRL team which seems to have hurt him the most.
The 43-year-old was reportedly devastated upon learning his junior rugby league club ignored the final fight of his career, refusing to play the fight at St George Leagues club at Kogarah.
The former rugby league star even played for the Dragons NRL side, but that wasn’t enough to get him a place on the screens of his former club, a fact that stung ‘The Man’ much like Horn’s vicious left hook on Friday night.
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“It’s heartbreaking and it’s an insult,” Mundine told The Daily Telegraph about the snub.
“I started there as a 15-year-old in their junior reps.
“Maybe the club is struggling to know what their members and customers want.”
Not that Mundine needed any extra viewers for the final night of his career, with his final ever boxing match drawing in over well over $10 million of television money from around 200,000 viewers on Main Event.
Main Event host Eddie McGuire let slip late in the broadcast that the PPV would end up in the top three for Australian boxing.
Mundine’s emotional pain will surely be easily forgotten considering the financial windfall he experienced from the fight.
He is believed to have earned at least $2 million from his 96 seconds of work against Horn, a whopping $21,000 per second at a minimum.
Mundine calls it quits
It took just 96 seconds for the remarkable and controversial 25-year sporting career of Anthony Mundine to come to an end.
The veteran boxer and former rugby league star, self-proclaimed as the best athlete Australia has ever produced, is finally done.
At 43, the body which took him to NRL grand finals and boxing world titles simply can’t keep up any more.
It was a reality Mundine was made brutally aware of when Jeff Horn – 13 years his junior – began the pair’s fight at Suncorp Stadium with a shot to Mundine’s body.
From that moment, any illusion that ‘The Man’ would pull off a shock upset was obliterated in front of the thousands watching in the stands.
Less than two minutes later it was over when a Horn left hook knocked Mundine out.
“I’m 43 – I’m not 23 – you know what I mean,” Mundine said after the loss.
“If I was bit younger, bit fresher, maybe things might have been better but that’s the way it goes man.”
Pre-fight Mundine had hinted his career may continue if he beat Horn and opened the door to further big pay-days.
But no amount of money is going to get him back in the ring now, he says.
“Nah man, I’m done,” he said.
“That’s life man. You can’t cry over it, it’s meant to be and we’ve got to move on.”
For all his athletic brilliance, Mundine’s outspoken ways have often put him offside with Australia’s public.
The veteran was booed as he walked into Suncorp and then cheered when he was floored by Horn.
Not that the public hate is something he is bothered by.
“All the trash I talked, in the end it’s an entertainment business and I’ve got to try and get bums on seats,” he said.
“Obviously a lot of people don’t like it, so you’re going to get detractors and lovers, supporters. It’s part of the game and I’m glad I’ve really united something for these guys to earn some big dollars.”
As to the future Mundine says he’ll continue to campaign against injustice and to use his legacy and story to “uplift and help people” as well as spend some well-earned time with his children.
With AAP