Mundine still aiming high despite losing title
Anthony Mundine hasn’t given up on landing a fight with world champion Floyd Mayweather despite the WBA stripping him of his interim super welterweight title.
Mundine was the mandatory challenger to American title-holder Austin Trout but his camp failed to show at a purse bid set up by the WBA in late March.
Mundine, who turns 37 next week and has a record of 43 wins and four losses, said they couldn’t find common ground.
“When we were negotiating Trout had no TV and was going to be reliant on fighting in my market and taking the majority of the share,” Mundine told AAP.
However since then Trout (24-0), who pounded Australian Frank LoPorto last November, has signed a deal with influential manager Al Haymon and is scheduled to defend against Delvin Rodriguez in Los Angeles on June 2, with the bout telecast on Showtime.
Mundine now finds himself with no interim title, no American management after the expiry of his short-term deal with Cameron Dunkin, and he’s off-side with the WBA.
He hasn’t fought since he became the mandatory challenger with a decision win over Rigoberto Alvarez last October.
But the polarising boxer hasn’t given up on landing the biggest fish in five-division world champion Mayweather (43-0).
“I just want to go after Mayweather, I don’t want nobody else,” Mundine said.
“He’s the only one on my level.
“I want to fight the best … I want to build up to the best but I’ve got to get over there.”
He said he needed a credible fight in the US to get his name out there.
“I just need to get over there and showcase my skills against a credible opposition so they start talking about me and I get a name and a following,” Mundine said.
He still believed Trout wasn’t the right opponent because he’d never fought “a name”.
“I offered him twice the amount he’d got in his whole career but he wanted to go to purse bid,” Mundine said.
“I’m not going to sell myself short and get robbed by a guy who just barely became champion and then if I beat him I still won’t get the credit I deserve.”
Mundine said he hoped to sign off on a fight in the next 48 hours but didn’t want to reveal any details, except that it wasn’t re-matches with Danny Green or Daniel Geale.
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The Crowd Says (5) | Page 1 of Comments
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May 15th 2012 @ 5:10pm
Jimmy said | May 15th 2012 @ 5:10pm | Report comment
What a terrible state of affairs! Mundine obviously knows he has no chance of landing a fight with any major fighter where it counts!
He’s unknown and unwanted. At the same time, lets all prey that Mundine and Green does NOT happen again, what an embarrassing slap in the face to Australian boxing that would be.
He should have been fined for using Floyd Mayweather’s name in the interview.
May 16th 2012 @ 6:39am
Gleeso said | May 16th 2012 @ 6:39am | Report comment
I used to follow Mundine. He is now basically retired right? If mundine is uneasy about his legacy he can thank his friend khoder nasser.
May 16th 2012 @ 6:51am
The Grafter said | May 16th 2012 @ 6:51am | Report comment
Why is The Roar giving this bloke publicity when there are real local boxers fighting this Friday, some of whom will get to the world stage?
May 16th 2012 @ 7:08am
Tristan Rayner said | May 16th 2012 @ 7:08am | Report comment
Mundine remains relevant – even if most people wish to bag him
We’d love to run more articles on real local boxers, but we need someone who knows to write it…
May 16th 2012 @ 11:08am
SportsFanMelb said | May 16th 2012 @ 11:08am | Report comment
The unfortunate thing about Mundine is that he actually truly believes the rubbish that he speaks. The only fighters he ever fought in his 43 fights to date with any credability were Ottke and Kessler and guess what – he lost both times! Also losing to Garth Wood (no disrespect to Wood) probably also shows that Mundine is on the slide as a fighter, he has left it far to late to make the move to the US. He spent his career down here fighting nobodies to build up his W/L ratio and then accuses Trout of not fighting any one with a name? Are you serious!
The one thing that Mundine probably has NOT thought about yet (does he ever think before he speaks) is that no one in the USA knows who he is, absolutely no one. Does he seriously believe Mayweather, Pac Man or Cotto are going to fight some nobody from Sydney with a loud mouth and no credible previous opponents because he wants to make a name for himself?
Cannot wait till he retires and we can stop hearing about this fool…