Loopy snooker stars get ready to rumble

Two snooker stars will enter the ring tonight for what is being billed as the sport’s first boxing grudge match.

Quinten Hann has been trading verbal pot shots with fellow pro Mark King in the run up to their feud-settling fight in the world famous venue, York Hall, in Bethnal Green, east London.

The "snooker loopy" bout was planned after the unpredictable Hann squared up to opponent Andy Hicks at the end of their match in snooker’s World Championship in April.

Hann called Hicks “short and bald” prompting King, who is also bald, to step into the ring for the fight.

King has claimed the whole snooker fraternity wants him to win while Hann insists that the Essex man was “horrible” to him when he started out on the tour.

Tickets for the fight are sold out, with the bout being sponsored by bookmaker Stan James and computer games firm EA Sports.

The pair will fight three two minute rounds in the clash which has been sanctioned by the Amateur Boxing Association.

Hann and King will wear protective head guards with the Australian representing Dagenham Boxing Club and King fighting for neighbours Monteagles BC.

Hann has earned a controversial reputation on the snooker circuit for his bizarre behaviour during matches, which includes pool-style break-off shots and alleged winding-up of opponents during games.

At a press conference in May, King said: “Nobody likes him (Hann), that’s why most of the support is going to be with me.”

Hann hit back with: “I am going to put him on the deck so many times he will have a cauliflower backside by the end of the fight, if he makes it that far.”

But at a weigh-in yesterday, Hann was less confident.

“It is unlikely it is going to be a knock-out.”

Of their rivalry, Hann added: “There has been needle. But we overdid it at the press conference.

“We are both going to try to win. But we made out we hated each other more than we probably did.”

However, the Australian could not hide his disdain for many of his fellow pros on the snooker circuit who are all said to be rooting for King.

He said: “I am a little unusual and not the easiest bloke to get along with. I don’t want to be friends with them and they don’t want to be friends with me. I just don’t even try.”

Organisers of the bout claim footballers and other top snooker stars will be watching.