Sin Bin
€60,000 offered for One Direction star to fight Mike Phillips
ESPN Staff
February 13, 2014
Niall Horan
Niall Horan - not really cut out for the rough stuff? © Getty Images
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Always ready to grab the slightest opportunity for self publicity, bookmakers Paddy Power has put up a purse of £60,000 if Mike Phillips will get into a ring with Niall Horan from One Direction.

The unlikely pair clashed on Saturday when the petit Niall posted on his Twitter account that Phillips behaved like "an arrogant idiot" during the Six Nations loss to Ireland. Phillips replied: "Come down to training in the week big boy. Bring the rest of The Beatles with you."

But as the world moved on, the bookmakers sprang into action by offering €50,000 to a chosen charity for the winner and €10,000 to the loser if the pair sorted their differences in the ring.

Paddy Power's Feilim MacAnIomaire told the Irish Mirror: "This is absolutely a real offer to the both of them - why the hell not? It would be craic. We would like them to both jump on board, but who knows if they will be able to find the time. They have both got very busy schedules, but I am pretty sure how we would price it.

"It would be very, very long odds on poor Niall. But whether or not he would be brave enough to step into the ring with Mike Phillips - even if it is for charity - he would be a bigger man than me."

Clearly the fight will never happen. But given Horan earns €60,000 in less time than it takes Phillips to warm-up for training, he might be best off to lob the cash into the charity pot and run for the hills. He also might have learned to think twice before calling someone three times his size arrogant.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd

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