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It is approximately two weeks until Anthony Mundine defends his
regular WBA Super Middleweight title (Joe Calzaghe is the WBA
Super Champion) for the third time on February 27 against his
childhood friend and journeyman boxer Nader Hamden. This is also
the third successive defence Mundine has made against the WBA’s
15th ranked contender, usually Mundine and his people
announce a fight and then the opponent ends up ranked the WBA’s
number 15 contender but that is another story.
Since this fight was announced, it has received very little
publicity in Australia and absolutely no coverage in the
newspapers or television in the last month which is quite
unusual considering both men are from Sydney. I did hear a
whisper on the radio that ticket sales had been slow and this
leads me to believe that within a couple of days we will hear
Anthony Mundine make an outrageous statement of some description
to get his name in the news headlines to generate some interest
in this fight to help ticket sales. He has had some absolute
beauties in the past such as “returning to play professional
Rugby League, going into politics, insulting Cathy Freeman, (for
those who don’t know, Cathy, like Mundine, is of Aboriginal
heritage and she won the 400 meters gold medal at the Sydney
Olympics. Freeman -unlike Mundine- is VERY well respected by the
Australian public) or stating he is the best athlete of any
description to come out of Australia. I will be very surprised
if there are no public statements from Mundine or his camp. As an
educated guess, this Tuesday or Wednesday there will be something
controversial that Anthony Mundine has said in the news
headlines.
People who read my articles know I am harsh on Anthony Mundine,
especially considering some of the soft opponents he has taken
in the past but in this instance Mundine is fighting the very
solid veteran Nader Hamden who was once ranked as high as No. 3
in the WBC Super Welterweights. Hamden has a reasonable record
and has faced some very tough world ranked opponents over the
years, the unfortunate thing for Nader is that he has lost to
the most recognizable of his opponents. He has faced -and lost to-
Sam Soliman (12 round points loss), current IBF Middleweight
Champion Arthur Abraham (12th round TKO), former
world champ Otis Grant (12 round points loss) and an 8 round
points loss to the very capable Super Middleweight contender
Mads Larsen.
On paper Hamden doesn’t appear to deserve this shot
at the title having lost 4 of his last 8 fights, but having come
from the school of hard knocks by traveling overseas to fight
VERY capable opponents on short notice in their own backyards,
he has paid his dues and deserves this title shot in the
twilight of his career. Hopefully Nader is getting a decent
payday out of this, too. I know that Nader will give this fight
everything he has; every opponent he has faced knows they have
been in a fight but Mundine’s skills and speed are at a much
higher level than Hamden’s. Nader’s heart, determination and
toughness will only take him so far. An upset is possible,
although unlikely in this instance, and I see Mundine scoring a
TKO anywhere from the 6th round onwards over the
overmatched Hamden.
Providing everything goes according to plan for Anthony Mundine and he
wins this third voluntary defence of the WBA’s secondary title,
where does he go from there? To his credit I believe Mundine’s
preferred opponent would be Joe Calzaghe, I can’t ever see that
happening as Joe has much bigger fish to fry. Hopefully the WBA
will demand Mundine make a mandatory defence of his title, if
this happens it would be interesting to see who the WBA mandates
as some of its top contenders are scheduled for other big
fights. If Mundine gets another optional title defence I
sincerely hope he seeks out a well ranked credible opponent,
someone like Sakio Bika, Edison Miranda, Jermain Taylor, Jeff
Lacey, Allan Green, Librado Andrade or Mads Larsen. Perhaps the
most impressive opponent Anthony Mundine could seek out for his
next title defence would be Mikkel Kessler, the man who so
soundly defeated him several years ago. Mundine has been
demanding a rematch for the last couple of years and now would
be a good time to press for it, with Kessler coming off a
comprehensive loss to Joe Calzaghe. Still, I do believe that once
again I will be disappointed in Mundine, who will be more
interested in lining his pockets with cash against soft
competition, which will allow him to control all aspects of his
fight promotions and take the lion’s share of the money
generated from the promotions.
The sad part about this approach
means that the boxing fans will only be seeing him face average competition
at best, because the best fighters in the Super
Middleweight division are well represented by powerful promoters
who won’t stand for Mundine and his team’s nonsense. Even a
rematch with Danny Green may take a while to take place as Danny
Green holds the only WBA Light Heavyweight title, 2nd
to nobody else in the WBA Light Heavyweight ranks at this time.
Green will be demanding control of any promotion for a rematch
with Anthony Mundine as well as the lion’s share of the money
generated and I don’t think Mundine’s ego and pride will allow
for that control to go to a boxer whom he has previously beaten.
I don’t think Danny Green would really care if a rematch with
Mundine doesn’t happen, he would probably just move on to face
tougher competition from overseas or face fellow Aussie Paul
“Hurricane” Briggs in what would certainly be a more
entertaining spectacle than a Mundine rematch.
Anthony Mundine has become a multi-millionaire through his
boxing achievements largely because of his Rugby League profile
and fan base. He doesn’t really need any more money, he should
have been set up for life with the five million odd dollars he
earned from his fight against Danny Green two years ago. What
Mundine really wants and needs is respect and to leave a legacy in
boxing before he retires. To achieve this he MUST face and
defeat the best fighters in the Super Middleweight division and
perhaps the Light Heavyweight division; otherwise, he will be
remembered for his big mouth, big promises and stupid public
statements which will be a shame since he has so much natural
talent. He just doesn’t allow himself enough opportunities to
put it talent on display against the best competition. To date
on the world stage Mundine’s biggest victory is over Danny Green
a domestic opponent, which was a very good achievement in
Australian boxing history but against the biggest names he has
faced on the international stage Mundine has been knocked out
cold by Sven Ottke, comprehensively out-pointed by Mikkel
Kessler and he disappointingly surrendered his first reign as
WBA regular Super Middle Weight Champ though lack of punch
output against Manny Siaca. To date, Anthony Mundine’s biggest
win over an international opponent is a points victory against a
past his prime Antwun Echols. Wins over such opposition hardly
make the foundations of a memorable fighter, Anthony Mundine’s
feats in the ring do not compare to what his father Tony Mundine
achieved in his career and Tony never won a world title. In fact
Anthony Mundine has a long way to go even be mentioned in the
same manner of Australian boxing greats such as Jeff Harding,
Jeff Fenech, Lionel Rose, Johnny Famechon & Kostya Tszyu.
Anthony Mundine may even think he is the greatest active
Australian boxer at the moment, but he doesn’t even come close
to equaling Michael Katsidis' achievements.
I can only wish that Anthony Mundine doesn’t say anything stupid
leading up the match up with Nader Hamden and I hope that after
this bout he starts living up to his statements about being the
best in the division. Mundine needs to stop saying he’s the best
and start proving it in the ring by beating the best, something
he has yet to do.
I’d really like to be more of a fan of Anthony Mundine, I’m just
not fooled by the current act, he needs to change mine and a lot
of other people’s opinions by his actions and not his words.
Time will tell, maybe!
Darren Yates
2-17-2008
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