Peter Foster weighs in on Horn v Mundine match as Queensland’s “greatest con”

Notorious conman Peter Foster has weighed in on the Horn v Mundine match in Brisbane last week. Read the full letter penned to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The Horn v Mundine kerfuffle was the greatest con perpetrated on the Queensland sporting public since the Fine Cotton ring-in.

It should never have been sanctioned, the Queensland Government should never have financed it, and those associated with this blatant self-interested dash for cash should be ashamed for treating the public with such contempt.

In the early 1980s, when I promoted Mundine’s father, Tony, and was labelled the World’s Youngest Boxing Promoter, I was taken to task by the press with my proposed Muhammad Ali boxing exhibition on the Gold Coast.

Peter Foster leaves the Sydney Central Local Court in October after being freed from prison. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett)

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At 42 years of age he was deemed by some to be too old to lace up the gloves, his health was suggested to be at risk, even though it was a friendly exhibition.

How then Anthony Mundine at 43 could be regarded as a worthy opponent for a man as capable as Jeff Horn in what was expected to be a “war” defies belief when we are expected to have a higher level of accountability and susceptibility in the modern era.

It was a rip-off any way you look at it … those locals who travelled to Suncorp Stadium were ripped off by paying good money for a bad farce, the Queensland taxpayer who funded it were ripped off as it only drew a handful of southerners with empty seats on all planes into Brisbane, and those who did come, as my dear old mum would say, “arrived with one clean shirt and a fiver and didn’t change either”.

Australian boxer Jeff Horn has his arm raised as he is announced winner against Anthony Mundine (right) following the River City Rumble boxing match at Suncorp Stadium last month. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

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If I promoted this fight the public would be throwing rocks at me, the government would be demanding I refund the public, and Mundine would forfeit his multimillion-dollar purse … and rightfully so, too.

Promote Queensland by all means, however the Queensland Government needs to explain how much they paid the promoter and why, because Queenslanders have been conned long enough.

But wait, there’s more … now the promoters have the Gold Coast in their sights, with a proposed stoush on Surfers Paradise beach in April, fancifully to attract Asian tourists and of course funded by Queensland taxpayers.

Could our politicians really be that gullible, or is it only a rort if you’re not in it?

PETER FOSTER,

INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MISCHIEF, FORMERLY WORLD’S YOUNGEST BOXING PROMOTER AND QUEENSLAND SPORTS TRAGIC