A couple of weeks ago Anthony Mundine was supposed to fight Mikkel Kessler for the WBA Super Middleweight title. In his usual over the top way, Mundine predicted he would beat Kessler, return to playing Rugby League, and defend his world title in the off-season. Kessler threw a spanner in the works by withdrawing from the bout initial date with a back injury forcing a postponement until June 8. Mundine continued to tease Rugby League fans that he was going to go back to the game regardless. To me it appeared to be just a big publicity stunt for Mundine to generate interest in his eventual bout with Kessler, perhaps a secondary reason is if he loses to Kessler he has a foot in the door to go back to Rugby League. Whatever his motives, Mundine and his team were not showing adequate respect to boxing & Rugby League and their respective fans and more importantly, to Mikkel Kessler, one of the most dangerous Super Middleweight boxers in the division.

Interest in Mundine has certainly died down in the last month since the postponement of the initial bout. I’m not sure whether this is a media backlash stemming from the suggestion of going back Rugby League, which turned out to be nothing but hot air. Or perhaps with all the action happening in June involving big name boxing match ups between Tszyu-Hatton, Gatti-Mayweather along with Mike Tyson’s comeback there is no room to worry about  who makes a lot of smoke without much fire.

For those readers outside of Australia and Denmark it would be easy not to notice that two of the best 168 pounders will fight for the WBA Super Middleweight title. The 168 pound weight class is a very competitive division at the moment and Mikkel Kessler, the current WBA Super Middleweight champion, is a very worthy and solid champion,  probably as good as Joe Calzaghe and/or Jeff Lacy.

I have only seen three of Kessler’s fights and he is certainly not your standard European technical boxer who looks to win his bouts on points. Kessler is a very good power puncher with reasonable defense and boxing skills. He pounded on South African Andre Thysse for 11 rounds until the referee called a halt to the proceedings and went on to demolish  Manny Siaca easily over seven rounds by applying relentless pressure and barely being hit in return. Whilst watching these bouts, I did not really see any exceptional skills or defense being shown by Kessler; and initially thought Mundine might tag him easily using superior hand speed. However, perhaps his skills were more subtle than meets the eye.

Anthony Mundine is the number one contender and one of the most naturally gifted athletes I have seen having played Rugby League professionally. It is my understanding that Mundine could have played professional basketball in Australia as well. In Anthony Mundine, Kessler will have a much more difficult opponent than Siaca from a speed and skills perspective and I am not too sure how this fight will develop. Since losing his WBA Super Middleweight title to Manny Siaca just over a year ago, Anthony Mundine has fought three opponents who were cannon fodder and the only good this would have done him was to bring his confidence levels up. Mundine did utilize Paul Briggs for a few intense sparring sessions a month or two ago and I believe this would have been more useful to him than his last three fights.

I initially thought that Anthony Mundine would cause an upset and beat the big Dane but a few things have changed my mind. I think Anthony Mundine has put too much pressure on himself concerning a Rugby League comeback, in addition if Mundine was contemplating a League comeback how in the world could he possibly be 100% focused on defeating the most dangerous opponent he has ever faced in his life. When Mundine defeated Antwun Echols for the vacant WBA title two years ago, Echols had not fought for over 12 months and had a bullet lodged in his armpit. I think fortune was favoring Mundine in that instance, but this time around, he is facing a dangerous, undefeated knockout puncher who applies relentless pressure. My concern for Mundine is has he prepared sufficiently to win this bout and is his mind on the job at hand.

A surprise to me was reading in The Sun herald that Roy Jones Senior has been in Sydney helping Mundine with his preparations for his title shot. Jones said “he’s got some great skills; they just need to be refined. Anthony’s got skill, there’s no doubt about that. We just have to manage it right.” Easier said than done in my opinion!  Jones further stated “Kessler looks like a very tough fighter but if Anthony is hungry enough, if he wants it badly enough, he will win. It’s going to be tough, there’s no kidding about that.”  

I question how badly Mundine wants this victory if he was planning to return to Rugby league. Anthony Mundine may look good in the gym, but in the majority of his fights he has chosen to face opponents with limited skills or abilities and he was able to manhandle most of them, and very few were able to test him. I think that the good preparation he has done in the lead up to this bout will not be sufficient in this instance to beat a monster like Kessler.

Sam Soliman, the number one contender for Bernard Hopkins IBF Middleweight crown has swayed my opinion after reading his comments in the Sunday Telegraph. Sam fought Mundine in the ring about four years ago, has sparred with him in recent years, and is now currently sparring with Mikkel Kessler. Soliman doesn’t think Mundine has a chance as Kessler is larger than Mundine, very accurate with his punches and relentlessly comes forward. Soliman believes, as do I that Mundine cannot handle pressure very well and Sam believes Kessler will stop Mundine between the sixth & ninth rounds unless the referee helps out Mundine by letting him hold Kessler in clinches all night.  

On top of Soliman’s views, I personally believe that Mundine’s chin will let him down also. Anthony has not shown a very sturdy chin to date and if Kessler fights as well as Soliman predicts he will, it is likely Mundine will be knocked down at least once, if not a few times. I think when the going gets tough Mundine will hold & clinch making this into an ugly fight if his tactic don’t work and he is unable to cope with Kessler’s pressure. I hope that the referee won’t allow Mundine to excessively hold.

I am hoping Mundine’s skill and speed will allow him to surprise an over confident Mikkel Kessler and land a surprise knockout punch. After both Danny Green and Paul Briggs came so close, yet so far in recent world title fights it would be nice to see another Aussie holding a world title strap. It doesn’t look too likely from my perspective but there have been bigger upsets in boxing. I just hope whomever wins this bout goes on to fight the best in the division, fighters like Joe Calzaghe, Jeff Lacy, Marcus Beyer and Danny Green.