Horn’s promoter: Mundine would be a step backwards

Jeff Horn won’t be fighting Anthony Mundine, at least not any time soon, as his promoter Dean Lonergan says they are fully focused on facing Terence Crawford, and trying to achieve something bigger than a fight with Mundine could produce.

“Realistically, right now, this is Jeff’s chance at global glory. To take on Anthony Mundine at this point in his career would be a major step backwards. Mundine has put a lot of money on the table and he had a good result the other night, albeit against a journeyman.

”In the world of boxing, who knows? You never say never, but right now we are chasing things that are much, much bigger than any Australian boxer has ever achieved. I think (Mundine) has to go on the backburner and we’ll worry about that if it comes up at a later date.”

This is good news all around for fight fans, or at least most fight fans, one assumes. Mundine is 42 and hasn’t had a good win in years, and while it would be a big event in Australia, Horn (18-0-1, 12 KO) is locked into being able to have big events in Australia for the rest of his boxing career.

In other words, fights on the scale of one against Mundine aren’t going away any time soon for Jeff Horn. But chances to achieve something bigger, as Lonergan says, are much fewer. A fight with Terence Crawford, Horn’s WBO mandatory, is simply a bigger deal. If Horn were to upset Crawford as he did Manny Pacquiao last year, it would be massive.

Right now, Bob Arum is working on a deal to put Horn-Crawford either in Las Vegas on April 21, or Madison Square Garden on April 14, and the fight would air on ESPN, with Manny Pacquiao possible for the card, as well.