By Jason Kim: Two-time WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (38-3, 23 KO’s) is hoping to get a shot at unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the near future or at the very least a chance to fight the June 5th winner of the Yankee Stadium clash between WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman bout. Mundine, 35, will be facing Jorge Daniel Miranda (36-8, 13 KO’s) later on this month on June 30th for the vacant WBA International light middleweight title.
Mundine is currently ranked #1 WBA, #3 IBF and #9 WBO in the middleweight division. Mundine turned down a chance to fight for the middleweight title in a fight against undefeated Gennady Golovkin, a move that didn’t endear Mundine with many of his fans. It would have been a good bout for Mundine because Golovkin is young undefeated former Olympian and hits hard. Mundine didn’t see the appeal in the fight and instead is hoping to get a big paying bout against Mayweather or the Cotto-Foreman winner.
Mundine’s career has been going along pretty smoothly since being beaten by Mikkel Kessler in a 12 round decision loss in 2005. Mundine has won his last 15 fights since that time, and captured the WBA super middleweight title for a second time in 2007. However, most of Mundine’s fights in the past five years have come largely against fellow Australians. He could have fought Kessler for a second time but instead relinquished his WBA title without a fight by vacating it rather than fighting Kessler.
Last year, Mundine defeated Daniel Geale by a 12 round split decision to win the IBO middleweight title on May 27th, 2009. Mundine’s goal now is to capture a 4th world title by going after one of the junior middleweight belts and then hopefully get a shot against Mayweather. Mundine doesn’t have much time to accomplish a lot of his goals because he’s getting up there in age at 35, and it’s unclear how much longer he’ll be able to stay at the top.
Mundine is making things easier on himself by being very selective in the opposition he takes, which should keep Mundine winning in the short term. However, it’s a big question mark whether Mundine has enough talent left to beat one of the current junior middleweight champions. It would be tough for him. Although Mundine looked decent in beating Geale last year, it was far from a one-sided fight.
Mundine looked tired during the later rounds and took some heavy shots. Mundine would have a decent chance at beating Foreman, but it’s questionable whether he’ll get a chance of fighting him unless Mundine gets ranked high and beats someone of note in the division.
A fight against Mayweather would seem to be completely out of the question right now, because Mundine isn’t known at all in the United States by the casual boxing fan and because of Mundine’s had habit of fighting mostly against fellow Australians, he’s limited his popularity to that country for the most part.
Comments are closed.