On Wednesday night, Danny Green stepped back into the boxing ring after a
six month layoff, to face the tough and awkward Argentinean Omar Gonzalez.
Leading up to this bout, a lot had been said in the Australian press concerning Green's sparring 7 round session with James Toney and how Green went toe to toe with one of the world most skilled heavyweights. It was evident by Green's comments he was quite proud of his showing. Perhaps this good showing went to his head because the Danny Green who fought two days ago  was not the same fighter who demolished Eric Lucas and dominated Marcus Beyer last year. I have been highly critical of Anthony Mundine (a fighter I'm not a huge fan of) in the past;  to be fair it is time for me to be critical of Danny Green even though he is one of my favorite Australian fighters.

Having a good sparring session with James Toney is one thing but fighting a
relatively unknown fighter who has nothing to lose and  is hungry is another. Judging by James Toney's size I doubt whether he is hungry! I give Jeff Fenech a lot of credit for insisting Danny Green take this warm up fight as it would probably have been suicide for Green to go into a bout with Mikkel Kessler after such a long layoff. Jeff's judgment was proven correct with the form we saw on Wednesday night.

In round 1 Danny started off using his jab well but couldn't find the range with the right hand. Gonzalez found the mark with a big right hand in the first round which
definitely raised Green's attention. Gonzalez was moving a lot and holding and this was stopping Green from landing too many good punches. Green scored
reasonably well in the clinches, especially to the body. Gonzalez scored the best punch of the round but Green landed more punches and had the higher work rate so I would say Danny won the opening round.

In the 2nd round Green continued to press forward with his jab and was  dominating the round with his jab and occasional right hand. Danny's combination punching was for the most part ineffective or sadly absent. Green was pressing the action and mid way through the round Danny dropped his hands and Gonzalez threw a wild right hand punch that caught Green flush, dropping him for the first time in his professional career. Danny seemed to be a bit off balance when the punch landed but this was no slip, a genuine knockdown down. Green rose to his feet easily and quickly re-established his jab and was back in control of the round before the bell.

By the 3rd round Green was shedding some of the inactivity rust and his timing was starting to get better and in the 5th round he was looking a bit like his old self. Green opened up a cut on Gonzalez's right eyelid with a left hook. The cut was in a very bad spot and the ring doctor stopped the fight. Gonzalez protested vigorously and I can understand this but I think the Argentinean was spared more punishment as he seemed to be wearing down from Green's consistent attack. I think the doctor's decision to stop the fight hurt Green more than Gonzalez as Danny needed all the rounds he could get to sharpen himself back to the form he was in last year.

This was a good choice of opponent for Danny Green. Yes, nobody had really
heard of this guy before except maybe Mads Larsen (Gonzalez put him on the
canvas too in their bout!). Gonzalez came to fight and was more capable of
punching back than Sean Sullivan, so I am sure Danny Green learnt a lot from
this bout. Green said he felt flat during the bout and said he will learn from the knockdown stating "The best thing that can come from this is it's gonna be a learning experience. I've never been dropped before in my life. I wasn't hurt, but still its something I never want to happen again in my career."