Boxing Preview : Anthony Mundine – Danny Green Part One

On Wednesday, 17 May at Aussie Stadium in Sydney, two of the biggest names in Australian boxing will clash in what is seen to be the biggest fight in the history of Australia. In one corner you have former rugby league star Anthony Mundine. No one in the world today could have dreamed that he could make the switch from football to boxing and be a success.

He was very successful in rugby league and now it has crossed over to the fistic art of boxing. Although he will not be the crowd favourite come May 17, many will turn up to see him, perhaps not because they like him but because they are hoping to see him knocked out. Mundine is known for Muhammad Ali-like boasting before a fight and this has rubbed the Australian public the wrong way ever since he made the switch to boxing.

Just like Ali, when Mundine started his boxing career he predicted world title wins and that he would dominate all competition. He was off to a good start when he beat his first eight opponents in impressive fashion. It seemed that the boxing gene had been passed from Australian boxing great Tony Mundine to his son Anthony. Next would be his toughest opponent to date, Sam Soliman, who is currently a middleweight contender and recently gave Ronald”Winky”Wright one of his most difficult fights to date.

Soliman, who is known for his awkwardness and superb fitness, posed all sorts of trouble to Mundine. Mundine showed visible signs of not being able to figure out his awkward opponent. After the final bell, many thought Soliman had done enough to win the fight. Could this be a big upset and a huge backward to step to the career of Anthony Mundine? Luckily for Anthony…it wasn’t. The judges scored the fight 115-113, 116-114 and 113-115 to Mundine, the winner by split decision.

The fans stood on their feet and booed the decision, saying Soliman had been robbed. In reality, the fight was very close and there were many rounds which could have gone either way and Mundine was the better man on the night. Soliman would gain enormous amounts of respect for his performance and Mundine’s popularity would fall. Mundine would next blow out fight veteran Guy Walters and was set for a world title clash with IBF Super Middleweight Champion Sven Ottke. This would be a night that would haunt Anthony. Even without sparring for this big world title clash and with only have 10 fights as a professional, Mundine gave Ottke all he could handle. The Australian even seemed to be winning the fight and on the road to a victory.

But Mundine’s lack of experience caught up to him and by the 10th round, he seemed to be exhausted. In that round, the light punching Ottke connected perfectly with a right hand to the temple. Mundine went down and showed no sign of getting up. Many would question Mundine’s chin after this fight but it seemed to be exhaustion that beat “The Man”. Mundine would fight another eight times until he would finally get his chance at another world title. He would fight tough American Antwun Echols on the 3rd of September, 2003. Echols had already fought reigning middleweight champion Bernard Hopkins and had given Hopkins two of his toughest fights to date.

One thing that bothered all Australian boxing fans was that Echols was a noted power puncher who had the power to knock anyone out with each hand. With Mundine’s loss to Ottke by KO, the question was; could Mundine take the power of Echols? This would go down as one of Mundine’s top performances of his career. He knew what he had to do and went out to the ring and showed Echols he had the skill and the speed to become champion.

Clinching at the right moments and simply outboxing the big puncher Echols was enough to earn Mundine a unanimous decision and would give him the WBA Super Middleweight Title. Shockingly, Mundine would announce after the fight that he had fought with broken ribs. The crowd was amazed at the ability and the heart Mundine showed in a fight with someone so dangerous. Although Echols was a huge threat to anyone, people would argue that Echols wasn’t what he used to be and that he didn’t hit Mundine often enough to test his chin. So even after a great win, Mundine was still seen as a fighter with great speed and ability but no chin.

He would have one successful defence of the title against Yoshinori Nishizawa. Despite suffering a knock down in the second, more as a result of being off balance than anything else, Mundine managed a dominating TKO in the fifth round.

Next would be Manny Siaca. Siaca had fought for a world title three times already and had not been successful; he would not let this opportunity fade away without a fight. Unfortunately for Mundine, he would injure his ankle while training and would still have to fight injured. Mundine when down in the second after being trapped on the ropes and it was obvious that the footwork he had shown in the fight with Echols was affected by the injury and that his title was in jeopardy of being taken. He would try to fight back during the contest but Siaca had too much of a lead and ended up beating Mundine by a close split decision.

Mundine’s corner thought he had it won and had given him instructions to stay away in the last round, which appeared to cost him dearly. To regain confidence and to show that he was a more mature fighter, Mundine would take a rematch with Sean Sullivan. Sullivan, although never winning any major fights, is known to have a massive heart and a granite chin that not even Danny Green could crack.

Mundine showed his new skills and completely outboxed Sullivan, but he wanted to send a message to his longtime rival Green. He wanted to show Green that anything the puncher could do, Mundine could do better. It was obvious in the tenth round what Mundine was planning. He attacked and attacked until he had Sullivan out on his feet and followed up with a flurry of punches that caused the referee to stop the fight. Sullivan had only been stopped once before this fight. ‘

Mundine would win his next two fights by early TKO and would now face his hardest opponent to date. Mikkel Kessler had beaten Manny Siaca in dominating fashion and appeared to be easily one of the best super middleweights in the world. Standing nearly 6’2, Kessler is a huge super middleweight, which would pose a problem for anyone but that was not all he brought to the table. Sheer size was with Kessler but also skill and enormous punching power. The Dane was much more of a threat than Echols, as he did not rely on power alone to win fights.

Mundine would not win this fight but any fan would be proud of his performance that night. Mundine would not run like he did against Echols; he would stand and fight with arguably the most powerful fighter at that weight. At one point in the bout, Kessler connected with a huge right hand that landed perfectly on Mundine’s jaw. With blood streaming down from his nose, Mundine dropped his hands and beat his chest and told Kessler to bring it on. Kessler had a fight on his hands. Mundine would also accomplish something that no one had done yet with Kessler and that was to back him up. Mundine made it clear that he could take a punch and that he feared no fighter.

Although the score cards showed Kessler winning by more then a small margin (even one judge scored every round to Kessler which is seen as very controversial as even the Scandinavian could not believe that) the fight looked close in the ring and it was clear that Mundine could match it with the best. The look Kessler showed while the scores were being read showed that he didn’t think he had won; this was no easy fight for him. Mundine was disappointed but was happy with his performance and happy that he defied all the critics and survived 12 rounds against one of the best in the division.

Any doubt about the chin of Anthony Mundine is a faded memory. Mundine would then TKO Rashid Matoumla in the sixth round and next was joint fight card which would have both Anthony Mundine and Danny Green fight in Perth. Mundine would knock out Rico Chong-Nee easily in the third round.

Straight after the fight, Mundine jumped on to a ring post and pointed at Green and gave him the cut throat sign. The Perth crowd responded by throwing bottles and anything else they could get their hands on. Mundine’s corner quickly grabbed him and rushed him to safety. Coming into the big bout Mundine is betting favourite and seems to be training for the fight of his life.

For ticket info visit premier.ticketek.com.au