Here is where I think Anthony Mundine went SERIOUSLY wrong!!!
Australia LOVES it athletes. When an athlete even hints that they could be up to competing against the world, ALL sports fans get behind them. Hell, we even do our best to adopt OTHER countries sports hero's!
I have a saying, "if you've murdered someone and get put in an Australian jail, learn to run 100 metres in under 11 seconds while your in there, and our government and sports fans will pull you out of jail and put you on a f'n pedestal quicker than you can say, "don't you care I killed someone""
Australia is in BAD need of a boxing superhero. We havn't had one for a long time. KT inspired a lot of people and was a very likeable guy, but his time has passed now, and the gates opened for a new hero for us to adopt...
Here's where Anthony went very wrong.
We don't even have a 1000th of the boxing scene that America has... We don't have the 100's of hero's and anti heroes. Boxing in america can get away with a bit of the wrestling persona where you have the fighters you love, and the fighters you love to hate!
Australia doesn't have that many fighters or the fight scene. So the fighters we have that show ANY promise, we WANT TO LOVE THEM. IT'S AN ABSOLUTE GIVEN!!! Any fighter that comes along that puts across a bit of the good old Aussie battler that you can have a beer with, and can excel in a sport, the whole country will get behind them!!!
But Anthony looked to much to the American style of doing things. He took the persona of the cocky
"fuk u all, I don't need fans, i'm the best, I only need to perform in the ring!". And sure, you know what? It worked. It worked to promote about 3 or 4 semi popular fights here in OZ. You either liked him or didn't, but you WERE interested in how the fight turned out.
BUT, that's about it. That's as far as the fight scene in Australia went.
Now he's over seas, and no one gives a f'k about him.... I LOVE BOXING! I LOVE BOXING HEROES!
Anthony Mundine, if he wasn't so near sited in his first few fights, could have had the ENTIRE AUSTRALAIN POPULATION behind him. He could have been the Ricky Hatton of Oz. He could have been HUGE.
Instead, he used a cheap image to promote a few local fights, and now he's gone, no one cares.
It depresses me to imagine what image he could have presented to the country. The sort of image he could have carried overseas with him, along with the hearts of every sporting fan in Australia. It was possible. It was easily possible! He HAS the skills.
But as they say, you can't change first impressions...
And unless he has a career overseas that mirrors a Floyd Mayweather, he's not going to win over a single more Australian boxing fan than he already has
Thumbs down to Anthony's ENTIRE entourage of promoters that didn't think to make him the All Australian Hero he COULD have very easily been!!
I personally now have to wait for the next KT to come along...
Thanks f'kers!
And I appologize in advance to any Anthony fans. He's not really that bad.. But you have to admit he could have OWNED Australia! It was an easy recipe.. But they f'd it.
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