By Dan Ambrose: Former WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (46-5, 27 KO’s) will be in the ring next week on Wednesday, April 9th against former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey (37-4, 22 KO’s) at the Entertainment Centre, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Mundine must win this fight in order to keep in position to get an eventual title shot against WBA 154lb champion Erislandy Lara. This should be a fairly safe fight for the 38-year-old Mundine, as long as he doesn’t get caught by one of Clottey’s triple hooks.
Mundine, 38, hasn’t take any chances recently by facing any risky opponents since his loss to Daniel Geale last year in January. Mundine beat 42-year-old Shane Mosley last year in November. In his last bout, Mundine topped Gunnar Jackson by a 10 round unanimous decision last January.
“It’s probably one of the most toughest fights of my career,” Mundine said about the Clottey fight to Fiji Times. “I want to be strong. I have to be strong because this guy is a bull and I want to be a matador. This guy is a beast. I want to tame the beast and be my own beast in order to get the victory.”
You know there’s problem when you get Mundine building up his opponent to try and convince boxing fans this is a good fight for them to go see him. This wouldn’t have been a bad fight to see if it was 2010 and before that, but it’s way too late now for the fight. Clottey stopped fighting on a regular basis after his one-sided loss to Manny Pacquiao in 2010. Indeed, Clottey has fought only twice since then in beating a couple of lower level fighters in Calvin Green and Dashon Johnson.
Mundine still has a lot of talent, but he’s playing it too safe right now while waiting for a title shot against Lara. Mundine wants to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, but those guys aren’t going to fight Mundine because he’s mostly fighting either obscure or older guys, and it’s not making him well known in the U.S. It might help Mundine do well in Australia, but it sure isn’t helping him in the U.S, because fights like this won’t be televised by Showtime or HBO.
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