By Nate Anderson: Former two-time World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (34-3, 23 KOs) easily defeated Rafael Sosa Pintos (31-3, 12 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at the E.G. Whitlam Recreation Center, Liverpool, in New South Wales, Australia. The final judges’ scores were 100-91, 99-91 and 100-88.
Anthony Mundine
Mundine Defeats Kim
By Tony Krebs: Former WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (33-3, 23 KOs) survived a 3rd round knockdown to come back and defeat opponent Crazy Kim (28-5, 24 KOs) by a 10-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Entertainment Centre, Newcastle, in New South Wales, Australia. Mundine, 33, who recently surrendered his WBA super middleweight title to face Sam Soliman rather than his number #1 challenger Mikkel Kessler, has taken a lot of heat lately for not facing top fighters. This trend continued with Crazy Kim, who had never fought a fighter of Mundine’s class in his career and it showed, as Mundine easily outclassed him through their 10-round bout winning every round except for the 3rd in which Mundine was dropped by a big left hook from Kim.
The shot staggered then dropped a stunned-looking Mundine who looked as if this wasn’t in the script for the fight. He immediately got up, and shook off the effects of the knockout and continued to dominate the fight as if the knockout hadn’t occurred. Kim would occasionally land a big shot or two in every round for the remainder of the fight, but he was mostly limited to only that because of his poor hand speed and boxing ability. He did, however, show a good chin, taking Mundine’s best shots without going down or getting hurt.
Mundine Defeats Soliman
By Aaron Klein: WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (32-3, 23 KOs) beat for the third time fellow Australian Sam Soliman (35-11, 13 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night at the Vodafone Arena, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Other than money, there wasn’t much reason for the fight to take place in the first place, considering that Mundine, 33, had already twice beaten Soliman. Additionally, Soliman is ranked a lowly #14 in the WBA super middleweight division, making this another bout in which Mundine failed to defend his title against his number one challenger.
As for the fight, it was close with Soliman outworking Mundine for most of the bout, hitting him with combinations to the head and body, and using a lot of movement to stay out of the way of Mundine’s big right hand shots. However, Soliman, like in the previous fights, tired out as the rounds progressed, letting the slower Mundine catch up to him more and more with right hands as the fight moved to the middle rounds. As usual, Mundine’s jab and right hand were excellent as he showed that he’s not lost a thing in terms of his power game. He caught Soliman with some especially big right hands in rounds four through eight, and then eleventh and twelfth. It seemed as if every time that Soliman would slow down, Mundine would land something really big. However, he never came close to really hurting him like last time, in which Mundine knocked Soliman down three times en route to stopping him in the 9th in March 2007.
Mundine vs. Soliman Tomorrow Night
By Scott Gilfoid: WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (31-3, 23 KOs) is set to defend his title tonight against Sam Soliman (35-10, 13 KOs) in the third and likely final bout at the Vodafone Arena, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Mundine, 33, will be giving up his belt in fighting Soliman, has chosen to not to defend his title against his number # 1 challenger Mikkel Kessler, who previously beat Mundine in June 2005 by a 12-round unanimous decision. Rather than take the risky fight against Kessler, a fight that Mundine would very likely lose, he has opted to take on Soliman, a fellow Australian, in a fight that would give Mundine a much bigger payday than he would get by facing his number one challenger Kessler.
This is, in part, because of the Australian rivalry that he has with Soliman, which dates back to their first fight in 2002, which Mundine won by a narrow, albeit, controversial split decision. Their second fight, fought in March 2007, was no less interesting with both fighters exchanging constantly from the first round until the bitter end when Mundine stopped Soliman in the 9th round. The fight was hugely exciting, despite Soliman getting dropped three times, as he continued firing back at Mundine and gave him some problems along the way, particularly in the 7th round when he connected with some huge hooks and uppercuts to the head of Mundine. In the end, however, Mundine had too much power for the smaller Soliman, chopping him down with a series of big right hands in the 9th round of their bout fought in Sydney, Australia.
Mundine To Face Kessler Instead Of Solimon?
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.
Mundine Decisions Hamden
By Eric Schmidt: World Boxing Association super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine (31-3, 23 KOs) won a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Wednesday night against his Australian challenger Nader Hamdan (40-6, 18 KOs) at the Entertainment Centre, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The bout had little suspense, as Mundine, 32, easily defeated Hamden, who came into the bout having lost three out of his last five bouts, though remarkably still ranked as high as #15 in the WBA despite all the recent losses. Mundine controlled every round of the fight, blasting the stubborn, but badly overmatched, Hamden with left hooks and straight right hands round after round.
Hamden, 34, kept coming forward, though, but mostly throwing weak shots to the body which did little to make the fight competitive. The final judges’ scores were 117-111, 120-108 and 119-109, all for Mundine. I had Mundine winning every round of the fight. He seemed to relax a bit in the 10th and 11th rounds, but Hamden hardly had the power or skills to take advantage of it Mundine easing up on him, and still appeared to lose both rounds by a wide margin. This was Mundine’s third title defense of his WBA super middleweight title in which he won in March 2007 with a 9th round TKO of Sam Soliman.