The WBA Light Heavyweight title bout between Stipe Drews and Danny Green in Perth Sunday night was not the entertaining spectacle I expected or hoped to see. I am pleased that after so many years of hard work and several big disappointments, Danny Green now holds a legitimate world championship belt, not an interim championship, not a regular championship behind a super championship or Champion Emeritus or any of these other ridiculous belts the sanctioning bodies have recently created. He holds the real thing. How the title was won -or perhaps surrendered- was the most talked about subject after the bout.

Never in my entire life have I seen a fighter surrender a world championship in such a manner as Stipe Drews. The now former WBA Light Heavyweight Champion of the world barely threw a punch in the entire fight. Both fighters started off slowly, sizing each other up but any fight that Drews had in him disappeared after Green landed his first power shot late in the 1^st round, this seemed to send Drews into survival mode. The 6' 5" Drews then proceeded to run all night and paw his jab to keep the more aggressive Danny Green at bay.

The challenger was more cautious than I am used to seeing him and he spent the entire fight picking his punches, having success with the left jab to the body, left hooks to the head and the occasional straight right cross. It was very hard for the challenger to bridge the gap due to Drews'  huge height, (Green is only 6' 1" tall) and  reach advantage (13cm or 5-6 inches) as well as the brilliant footwork & movement for such a big man. However, Green managed to land jabs to the body consistently each round and between 4-6 solid power punches per round. Drews was just not throwing punches, Green on occasion was falling over himself to reach the fleet footed Croatian and found himself quite out of position and vulnerable to be counter punched but Drews for whatever reason refused to punch. There weren’t many variations in the rounds as the fight progressed until the 11th round when I was shocked out my boredom by Drews throwing his first upper cut of the bout. In the 12th round, the momentum shifted as Danny Green was advised by his corner to keep his distance and not do anything silly; with the pressure released from him Drews started coming forward and threw the most punches of any round in the fight.

When the bell rang to end the fight I was pleased for two reasons; the first, it was obvious that Danny Green had won the fight and would be crowned the new WBA Light Heavyweight Champion of the world, but more so that one of the dullest fights I have watched in years was finally over. Seriously, I have seen more entertainment and action in some of John Ruiz’s dullest title defence and I have been very critical of him in the past. Instead of being overjoyed that Australia had a new world champion I was feeling flat as I was hoping the fight would be a memorable one, I guess it was but for the wrong reasons. Danny Green is only the second Australian to win a Light Heavyweight world title; for those of you who don’t know, Jeff Harding was the first, winning the WBC Light Heavyweight title back in 1989 by way of a technical knockout against Dennis Andries in the 12th and final round. Harding had been pounded from pillar to post for 9 of the 12 rounds fought in what Ring Magazine voted as Fight of the Year in 1989. Harding had won his title in the most dramatic fashion possible, it was a shame that Danny Green’s moment of glory did not have the same excitement. Still a win is a win and Danny Green was not the one making the fight dull and boring. I really would like to hear comments from the former champion concerning his reluctance to fight but there have been no comments released apart from a whisper that he has had enough of boxing and looking to go into business back in his native Croatia.

Where does the new champion go from here, well everyone in Australia wants to see him fight Anthony Mundine again, personally I think both men need a few more bouts each before considering a rematch. There has been talk of Green making a mandatory defence against the highest ranked available contender Hugo Garay (Roy Jones Jnr is ranked 2nd at Light Heavyweight in the WBA) or trying to lure Clinton Woods to Australia for a unification bout.