By Mark de Mori

www.markdemori.com

Everything ran according to plan on sunday night at Challenge Stadium, in Perth,  the undercard fighters took care of their overmatched opposition , hometown hero Danny Green outboxed Kirino Garcia over ten rounds, and Anthony Mundine outclassed Rico Chong Nee, finishing him in style with three consecutive right hands in the third round.

Unfortunately a small group of Mundine haters let their anger get the better of them, throwing whatever they could at Mundine after he put on the best performance of the night, but it may just have been the realisation of many in attendance that Mundine is going to be more than a handfull for their main man Green that really angered them.

So what did we learn last night that we didn’t already know about Green and Mundine?

We found out that Danny can box on the back move for ten rounds using a stiff jab and occasional combination, and that Mundine can come out with guns blazing to finish an oponent instead of jabbing and running. So we saw two guy box totally different to what they have done all their careers, and they both fought opposition that where the exact opposite style wise to what they will face when they finally get it, on sometime in the next six months at a still undecided venue.

The full house of approximately five and a half thousand seemed a little dissapointed Green could not knock out the stubborn Garcia, who looked as if he had been downing a few too many burrito’s in training. Despite his soft appearance it was clear that Garcia had an iron jaw, and a strong will that helped him hear the final bell.

Although after sixty seven fights and at age thirty seven, it may not be a good thing Garcia took punishment for ten rounds, as it was clear that he was not the same fighter he was in the late nineties.

The crowd was raucous when Anthony Mundine’s swagger was still intact despite the best efforts of a game Chong Nee. They booed and they yelled abuse,but Mundine only seemed to use it to motivate him, seemingly taking pleasure in incensing the crowd even further.

After the fights last night, I managed to get a word in with both Garcia and Chong Nee.

Garcia , whos trainer interpreted for me, had this to say when asked about the fight.

“Green is good, very good, and Mundine is very good too.”

And when asked who he thought would win Garcia replied “Mundine.” .

And after quizzing Chong Nee for some words after the fight in his dresing room, he believed the fight could have been different had luck gone his way.

“ I got hit in the first round, and I could feel my eye was going to swell, by the second I could hardly see, it was all from the one shot in the first round.”

“ I went down in the third because I couldn’t see anything when he hit me , I didn’t want to get knocked out, that’s why I went down.”

 And it was as obvious as it could be that Chong Nee could not fight on, as he showed me when he removed the ice pack, his eye was swollen completely shut.

So the losers go back home winless as the Green and Mundine show rolls on to what will hopefully be its final stop when they meet face to face in the ring sometime soon, but what comes after that for the winner. The road gets much harder for both the winner and the loser of the big showdown next year, the loser faces the task of starting all over again, while the winner has to face the likes of Jeff Lacy, Joe Calzaghe, Mikkel Kessler and Markus Beyer if they ever want to call themselves legitimate world champions..

See Pre-Fight Presser

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