MUNDINE STOPS NISHIZAWA TO RETAIN WBA SUPER MIDDLEWEIGHT TITLE By Darren Yates, from Down Under

Anthony Mundine retained his WBA Super Middleweight title last night scoring a 5th round TKO stoppage. Mundine was legitimately knocked down in the second round by a right hand from his Japanese opponent Yoshinori Nishizawa, but it looked like Mundine was off balance when the punch landed so the knockdown was not as damaging as his opponent or some observers might have thought (or wished).

Mundine scored two knockdowns of his own and he certainly looked the better of the two fighters,  seemingly able to land punches at will, although he was forced to the ropes a few times and appeared to take some punishment.

Mundine was just too fast, too strong and too powerful for Nishizawa and the referee did the right thing by stopping the bout with one of the challenger's eyes nearly closed and an ugly purple bruise under the eye as well as bleeding from a cut above the same eye.

The bout was more entertaining and competitive than popular opinion before the bout happened with Nishizawa having a very bad win/loss record and being 38 years old. This was only the second time in Nishizawa's career that he competed outside of his native land. Anthony Mundine pushes his record to 20-1, 15 KOs while Nishizawa drops to 24-14-5, 12 KOs.

Kostya Tszyu was at ringside and spoke to the FOX sports commentators; he has had surgery on his shoulder and should be back within six months, apparently the injury had nothing to do with his age or wear and tear.

1-19-04