Boxing News Boxing News
It was a pretty good week for Australian boxing, but most of the action happened of a Wednesday night show at the Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, NSW, headlined by Anthony Mundine and supported by super prospect Billy Dib.
Mundine, who recently gave up the WBA Super Middleweight belt rather than to face Mikkel Kessler again, took on heavy-handed Tokyo based veteran Toshiharu Kaneyama, better known by his nickname of “Crazy Kim”, over ten rounds.
Kim, a former longtime Japanese light middleweight titlist who recently moved up to win OPBF belts at super middle and light heavy, bid his time in the early rounds, studying the quicker Mundine until he lashed out in the third round with a perfect counter that shockingly floored “Choc”.
Mundine wasn’t seriously hurt but gave the big punching Kim a lot more respect afterward and concentrated on getting off his shots and not standing in front of his foe.
The strategy worked well for Mundine, who peppered the Japanese import with both hands while Kim attempted but failed to repeat his one shot success of the third round.
Kim showed a tremendous chin to go along with his massive heart in taking the best that one of the top super middles in the world had to offer but was outpointed after the ten rounds were over by wide margins of 99-91, 98-91 and 98-92.
Mundine, who will reportedly try to campaign as a middleweight in the future, improves to 33-3 (23), while 33 year old Crazy Kim drops to 28-5 (24).
There was controversy on the undercard as South African visitor Zolani “Untouchable” Morali, 19-2 (13), dropped undefeated super feather Billy Dib, 21-0 (11), in the third round of their vacant IBO title bout but was handed an unpopular 116-112, 116-114 and 114-113 unanimous decision loss.
31 year old Mdantsane based Morali brought the fight to Dib and while outboxed in the first part of the bout by the Sydney man, closed distance and began to score with big shots down the stretch but could not convince the ringside judges.
Morali’s team is filing a formal protest with the IBO and could see a rematch with Dib in the near future, perhaps in South Africa.
On the undercard, former Australian and IBF Pan Pacific Super Feather titlist Ahmed Elomar, 14-1-2 (7), returned from the only loss of his career to stop inexperienced novice Troy Glover, 0-3 (0), in the third frame of a four rounder at lightweight.
On Thursday, the ABA Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand saw a local super middleweight battle that Adrian Taihia, 3-0 (3), won by knocking out pro debutante Troy Seager, 0-1 (0), in the very first round.
The Convention Centre in Brisbane played host to heavyweight Alex Leapai, 10-3-2 (8), as the Queensland based Samoan recovered from losing his OPBF belt to Colin Wilson just over a month ago by knocking out New Zealand’s former WBO Cruiserweight title challenger Mohamed Azzaoui, 22-3-2 (8), in the second round.
