Boxing In Australia: Green vs. Siaca For IBO Title In Perth

ByBruce Dingo

This Wednesday at Challenge Stadium in Perth, favorite son Danny Green defends his IBO cruiserweight title against seasoned veteran Manny Siaca.

Green, 28-3 (25), is enjoying quite a successful second stage of his career following his return to the sport after a 17 month retirement that came on the heels of his WBA light heavy winning performance against Stipe Drews in December, 2007.

The 37 year old has racked up three wins, all within the distance, since coming back at cruiserweight including an IBO belt winning effort against Julio Cesar Dominiquez in America last summer and a crushing first round KO of Roy Jones Jr in Sydney this past December.

Now Green faces his sternest test since losing a WBA super middleweight title eliminator to Anthony Mundine four years ago.

Challenger Manny Siaca, 22-6 (19), of Puerto Rico had three WBA title fights at super middle between 2000 and 2001, losing two very close bouts to Byron Mitchell and one to Bruno Girard, who was stripped of the belt for refusing to face Siaca a second time.

Siaca finally hit paydirt in May, 2004 by defeating Green’s arch-rival Mundine by split decision to capture the WBA strap but lost it in a first defense against a top form Mikell Kessler in November of that year.

Since that loss, Siaca moved up to light heavy where he won three against lower level competition but was widely outpointed in a clash for the Interim WBA 175 pound title by ageless Italian Silvio Branco in 2006.

Most recently, Siaca surprisingly turned up as a middleweight, knocking out American journeyman George Klinesmith in one round in March of last year.

Although Green has been fighting at cruiser, his bouts have been conducted at just five pounds above the light heavyweight limit and this defense against fellow former super middle Siaca will probably follow the same pattern.

While neither man should have difficulty making the weight or suffer a lack of stamina in the later rounds for the same reasons, this one probably won’t go the distance given the huge punching power that both Green and Siaca have displayed in their careers.

At 34, Siaca is three years younger than the champion but the visitor has one large disadvantage however; he hasn’t been very active, just two bouts since the Branco loss four years ago and he’ll be making his first appearance in over a year while Green has had three fights during the last 12 months.

This could turn out to be a Fight of the Year candidate for as long as it lasts but if either man makes a mistake, it could only take one punch to end matters.

The undercard features two undefeated super featherweights, Sydney’s Will Tomlinson, 11-0-1 (10), and Chile’s Oscar Bravo, 13-0 (8), facing off for the vacant IBO Intercontinental belt.

Former IBF light welter title challenger Naoufel Ben Rabah, 28-3 (15), meets Australian champion Solomon Egberime, 20-2 (10), in a non-title eight rounder at welterweight.