Anthony Mundine

From Wiki Boxing

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Anthony Mundine (born 21 May 1975) is a boxer, former Australian rugby league player of mixed White and Indigenous Australian descent and WBA Super Middleweight champion. Mundine was trained by his father, Tony Mundine, who was a middleweight contender during the 1990s.

Mundine has had a stormy relationship with the media.<ref name="sportsfactor">Template:Cite web</ref> His conversion to Islam in 1999, self-promotion and outspoken opinions have created a love-hate relationship with the Australian public.<ref name="esb">Template:Cite web</ref> He was named the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Person of the Year in 2000.

1 Rugby league
2 Disappearance and after
3 Boxing career
4 Mundine's rivalry with Danny Green
5 After Green
6 Music career
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Rugby league

Template:Infobox rugby league biography Born in Newtown, in the inner west of Sydney in 1975, Mundine played junior rugby league for Hurstville United, before signing with the St. George Dragons in 1993. He played in the 1993 Grand Final, which the Dragons lost to his future team, the Brisbane Broncos.

In 1994, he represented the Junior Kangaroos, the team that beat Great Britain under-19's in the curtain-raiser to the Australia v. France Test at Parramatta Stadium.

In 1996, he played in another losing Grand Final, this time against the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. At the end of that season he announced that he was signing with the Brisbane Broncos in the Super League competition.

In 1997 he played 18 games for the Broncos, scoring three tries.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also played in his first winning Grand Final team, beating the Cronulla Sharks. In 1998, after turning his back on the Broncos, he returned to the Dragons, and in 1999, assisted the Dragons' run to the Grand Final, with a hat-trick against the Sharks in the Major Semi-Final. The following week, the Dragons lost to the Melbourne Storm.

Mundine was selected to play for New South Wales in 1999 in each of the three matches in the State of Origin series. He was disappointed that further representative honours did not follow, and believed that his representative opportunities did not reflect his abilities and achievements at club level. He raised the issue of racism as a possible explanation for this, and not admitting to the fact that he perhaps was not "The Man" as he was claiming.

Anthony Mundine left rugby league half way through the 2000 season,after being persuaded to take on the world of boxing by a good friend of his fathers, known only by his ring name 'Ak', a heavyweight champion in Tripoli, Lebanon in the 1960's.

[edit] Disappearance and after

In 2000, Anthony Mundine disappeared. Rumour had it that he had left the country and photos had been released to the media of various photos of supposed citing of Mundine in rural Australia, and the Australian rugby league world could talk of little else. He returned a couple of weeks later in a blaze of publicity to formally quit his rugby league career, and declare that he was switching to boxing. He predicted that he would be world champ within a year.

[edit] Boxing career

Mundine fought his first professional boxing match in July 2000, at the age of 25. After a limited amateur career (he had 4 amateur fights when he was 17), his first professional fight was against New Zealander Gerrard Zohs. Only 10 professional bouts later Mundine fought for his first world title against long reigning IBF supermiddleweight champion Sven Ottke in January 2001. The fight ended suddenly after 10 competitive rounds when Ottke landed a blow to Mundine's temple that left the latter unconscious on the canvass. Despite this dramatic loss, he returned to the ring, promising to fight again for a world title.

Mundine went on to claim the vacant WBA Super Middleweight title with a unanimous points decision over Antwun Echols on September 3, 2003, in front of his home crowd at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. He successfully defended his title once, before losing it in a hesitant performance and split points decision against Manny Siaca.

Mundine failed in his attempt to re-gain the WBA super middleweight title after losing by decision to Mikkel Kessler on August 6, 2005 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Despite the loss, many people believe that his bout against Kessler was the best he had fought, demonstrating a willingness to fight toe-to-toe with world class fighters.

[edit] Mundine's rivalry with Danny Green

Mundine's biggest Australian rival is the Perth-based Danny Green. In 2001, Mundine called Danny Green "a bum", and stated that Danny would be a "no hoper" against him. This was at the time when Green was still being coached by Jeff Fenech. Ever since 2001 Danny has wanted to fight Mundine.

The two boxers finally, after much anticipation, fought on May 17 2006, at Aussie Stadium, Sydney. The bout was one of the most anticipated in Australian boxing history, and was thought to eclipse the attendance record of 37,000 when Jeff Fenech fought Azumah Nelson in their rematch in 1992. Green became the slight favourite about 2 hours before the bout. Mundine won convicingly by outboxing his opponent over the 12 rounds. The bout was scored as follows: Judge Michael Lee 116-113, Judge Pinij Prayadsub 118-111, Judge Derek Milham 118-112.

[edit] After Green

Mundine's next fight was against Argentine boxer Ruben Acosta on November 15 at the Entertainment Centre in Newcastle. Mundine went on to win the fight with Acosta, beating him by TKO in the 4th. While the Argentine battled hard, and connected with several blows on Mundine, he was never in the contest.

On 7 March 2007, in a match touted as the most highly anticipated of 2007, Mundine secured the WBA Super Middleweight title with a decisive 9th round knockout win over Sam Soliman. Mundine dominated throughout the entire match, knocking Soliman down in round 2 and twice in the ninth round on the way to victory.

Mundine defended his WBA Super Middleweight belt with a points decision on June 27 against Pablo Daniel Zamora Nievas (17-1-1) of Argentina on the Gold Coast. Mundine hurt his right bicep in the 2nd round of the fight.

In early-August 2007, Mundine was hospitalised for an eye infection caused by a dirty contact lens,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which he had earlier tried to clean with his mouth.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The infection blinded him in his left eye, and was told that he was unlikely to regain full vision.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was released from hospital on 15 August 2007, stating that vision in his left eye is still blurry.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

[edit] Music career

After appearing as himself in the music video "Like a Dog" by the Australian rock group Powderfinger and featuring in beatboxer Joel Turner's single "Knock U Out", Mundine has released his own debut single, "Platinum Ryder".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The film clip created controversy for the burning of the Union Jack and a photo of Prime Minister John Howard.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His album, entitled Dreams is yet to be released.