‘Lines were crossed’: Jeff Horn threatens to dump promoters over Mundine tweets
Related Story: Horn sizes up Mundine as he sets sights on another title
Australian boxer Jeff Horn has threatened to walk away from his promoters after they published social media posts about Anthony Mundine's views on homosexuality without telling him.
Over the weekend, Horn's promoters posted on his twitter account, announcing that gay and transgender people would work alongside ring card girls during the upcoming fight, but only if Mundine agreed to it.
Mundine made homophobic comments earlier this year while he was on a reality television program.
But an angry Horn blasted the posts, saying he had no interest in using Mundine's views, or the LGBTI community to help promote their fight at Lang Park on November 30.
"It's been pretty frustrating that people have thought that I've been saying it, because it's been coming from my social media account," Horn said.
"I'm not the only one with access to that, my promoters are as well, which has been frustrating for me.
"I've actually taken away their access to my Facebook account, so I can be the only person that can post things up.
"I definitely don't want to get involved in any of that type of stuff and I think the lines were crossed."
Horn said his promoters, lead by Dean Lonergan, went behind his back.
"They were meant to talk to me before they posted anything and they hadn't and that's when I've taken them down," he said.
"They knew they've done the wrong thing as well … they knew they've gone too far.
"I was like 'well, you really should have spoken to me before you posted these things up saying it was coming from my mouth'."
He said the posts were damaging to his reputation.
"They know I'm very frustrated with the issues and they've apologised and said it won't happen again and I've made sure it won't happen again," he said.
The former school teacher has not ruled out cutting all ties with his promoters if they continued making comments on his behalf.
"It's frustrating and they know they're treading a very fine line with what they're saying," he said.
"I would be tempted to walk away if they keep acting like this."
Horn has also disagreed with his trainer Glenn Rushton, who raised concerns about Mundine potentially using banned substances to lose weight.
"I think he's doing everything fine," Horn said.
"I don't believe he's taking drugs or anything like that.
"I'm sure he's going to be fired up … there's been a few things going around that have probably fired him up, I'm just trying to stay focussed."
[contf]
[contfnew]
ABC .net
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
