With Danny Green having signed to fight Scott Pemberton in a bid to secure a third meeting with Markus Beyer, and a November superfight between Joe Calzaghe and Jeff Lacy supposedly a done deal, Anthony Mundine is starting to resemble a little boy that nobody wants to play with.

Blessed with phenomenal athletic gifts, speed to burn and a sledgehammer right hand, Mundine is without question one of the finest super middleweights on the planet. But with the exception of his unanimous decision victory over Antwun Echols to secure the vacant WBA title in September 2003, he has fallen short in the biggest fights of his career.

First came his KO loss to feather fisted Sven Ottke in December 2001. Mundine appeared to be ahead on points (although the bout did take place in Germany) but was fading noticeably when Ottke lowered the boom in round 10. Then Mundine was disappointing in dropping a split decision to Manny Siaca in May last year.

Most recently Mundine dropped a unanimous decision against Dane Mikkel Kessler in an attempt to regain his WBA belt - a bout in which he simply couldn’t combat Kessler’s size and strength advantages.

Recently, after Danny Green’s fifth round stoppage of James Crawford, Mundine called Green on a mobile phone after the bout in an attempt to secure an all Australian showdown, sure to be the richest fight in Australian boxing history. Green however knows that to be sure of getting a respectable slice of the pie, he needs to be wearing a world championship belt – thus his chasing of Pemberton and an attempt to secure a third fight with the very beatable German champ Markus Beyer.

With Kessler's reluctance to accept a rematch with Mundine, and his performance in the fight not really warranting one, “The Man’ now finds his career at a crossroads.

He is signed to fight one Rashid Matumla on September 7th in the Australian capital, in what can only be viewed as a “stay busy’ fight while he watches and waits to see if the results of the global super middleweight power struggles fall his way.

Mundine however, is an incredibly shrewd operator. Rest assured you will never see him in the ring with Jeff Lacy, although if an aging Joe Calzaghe can somehow outpoint Lacy in Wales, don’t be surprised if “The Man’ decides to try his luck with the Welshman as
well, provided of course that the money is right.

In reality, the best that Anthony Mundine can hope for is for is for Danny Green to be victorious against both Pemberton and Beyer, securing a fight that would make both men very wealthy (well, wealthy at least by super middleweight standards – it’s never been a big
money division).

Danny Green is the fight that Mundine has wanted all along. He can use his speed and boxing skills to completely befuddle the lumbering Green, who let’s face it, was completely outboxed by Markus Beyer for 11 rounds just a few short months ago. If Green can
somehow eke out a world title before the bout takes place, all the better – Mundine gets to retire as world champion and return to his first love, Rugby League, for a few seasons redundancy money before walking into the sunset.

Greig Johnston can be reached at levibillups@yahoo.com

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