Boxing Result: Mundine KO’d By Wood In Australia

In one of the biggest upsets in Aussie boxing history, light middleweight world title contender Anthony Mundine was knocked out in five rounds by the far less experienced Garth Wood in a bout held at middleweight on Wednesday at Acer Arena in Homebush, Australia.

Former two-time WBA super middleweight champion Mundine, 35, had campaigned at middleweight in 2009 and at light middle this year, winning six consecutive bouts in that time period and was angling for a title opportunity in 2011 at light middle.

By contrast, Wood, 32, has only been a professional fighter since 2007 and bounced back from an early KO loss later that year to win the Australian version of “The Contender” at super middleweight in January of this year, posting narrow wins over Victor Oganov and Kariz Kariuki.

Since then, Wood had racked up two victories against lesser competition and was considered to be a very big underdog in taking on the 43 bout veteran Mundine.

When the action commenced, Wood aggressively went after the former super middle champ, looking to close distance but Mundine used good ringcraft to keep his adversary at bay, picking off Wood with counters.

But Wood simply kept coming and when Mundine started to slow down in the fifth frame, the Sydney upstart got close enough to his quarry to land a huge left hook that caught Mundine bang on the temple.

It was a similar scenario to Mundine’s prior KO loss to Sven Ottke for the IBF super middle crown way back in 2001 and similarly, “The Man” couldn’t beat the count this time either.

Wood scores a tremendous upset and sees his record to 10-1-1 (6), while Mundine loses for the first time in five years, snapping a 17 bout win streak and dropping to 40-4 (24).

The undercard saw ex-WBO featherweight title challenger Billy Dib, 30-1 (18), stop former Australian light welter ruler Mick Shaw, 27-13-3 (8), over six frames.

Australian middleweight titlist Johannes Mwetupunga, 10-2 (4), retained his crown with a win on points over ten against former OPBF super middle strapholder Peter Mitrevski Jr, 23-8-1 (11).

Bantam Susie Ramadan, 19-0 (8), stayed perfect with a six round points verdict over Michelle Preston, 6-5 (1).