By Tony Krebs: According to the latest news, two-time WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine’s (31-3, 23 KOs) next title defense against Australian Sam Soliman hasn’t been approved by the WBA. The bout, the third matchup between the two, is currently scheduled for May 28th. Recently, former WBA/WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler was announced as the #1 mandatory challenger for the WBA belt held by Mundine.
Kessler, 29, previously soundly defeated Mundine in 2005, beating him by a one-sided unanimous decision. Mundine, however, proved that he has nine lives as he regained his WBA title with a 9th round TKO of fellow Australian Sam Soliman in March 2007. Since that time, Mundine has defended his title three times, beating exclusively soft opponents – Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas, Jose Alberto Clavero, and Nader Hamden – rather than the top dogs in the division.
Now, Mundine wants to once again fight Soliman, who is currently ranked a lowly # 14 in the WBA. However, Mundine, 32, has still as of yet not fought a mandatory challenger for his title. This is where the problem lies, for if the WBA allow Mundine to fight yet another time against a none-mandatory challenger, they would be doing a great disservice to the other challengers in the division. If the WBA rules against Mundine taking the bout with Solimon, then Mundine would likely have his title stripped from him should he carry out with his plans to fight Solimon.
From Mundine’s perspective, it’s understandable why he’d prefer to fight Solimon for it would be a much easier fight than having to face Kessler, while at the same time it would be a fight that would go over big in Australia. The rest of the world could care less about seeing Mundine vs. Solimon, but it would be a financially smart fight for Mundine to take rather than fighting Kessler immediately. Last time out, Mundine was essentially overmatched by Kessler and didn’t have the skills set or power with which to make the fight competitive. It would be better for Mundine to slip in one more fight before having to face the likelihood of losing his title against Kessler, who is coming off a loss to Joe Calzaghe in November 2007. Regardless of what his detractors may think of him, Kessler is clearly the second best – after Calzaghe – super middleweight in the division, and there’s a huge gap between him and the next fighter in the list.
Mundine, a good fighter still at 32, is more in the middle of the pack in terms of ability in my view. He’s better than fighters like Jeff Lacy, Carl Froch, Markus Beyer and Vitaly Tsypko, but a step below others such as Librado Andrade, Edison Miranda, Lucian Bute, and Jermain Taylor. Having to face Kessler now, who will likely be angry and out to prove a point after his loss to Calzaghe, is something that Mundine would be better off putting off as long as humanly possible.
That’s not to say that anything will change after Mundine fights Solomon again, because Kessler will surely beat him with ease even if he had to wait a year or more./ However, for Mundine’s sake, the best possible scenario would be for him to be allowed by the WBA to take the fight with Solomin before having to face Kessler for what will likely be a hand over of his title.