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I watched Cathy Freeman win the gold in Sydney and I watched Justin Harrison steal the lineout throw against the Lions in 2001.
I also witnessed David Campese’s last try for the Waratahs and Randwick and just watched 11 fights with a record 11 finishes at the UFC in Sydney while sitting cage side.
These are stories that I will gleefully pass onto my grandkids of my brush with greatness.
But watching Anthony Mundine get knocked down five times in Newcastle by Joshua Clottey was not one of those times.
I have never been a fan of Anthony Mundine’s mouth. Just a fan of his talent.
It was watching his sublime performances with St George, and his jaw dropping domination of super champion Sven Ottke in Germany that I could only wonder at how far he could surf his talent to match the wave of his talk.
Mundine famously lost against Ottke by knock-out in the 11th round, but the fact he was winning against such a dominant champion in his own backyard in only his 10th fight makes it an incredible feat. He didn’t even have an amateur career.
Mundine’s lack of an amateur career and crossover sports appeal put him in a unique position of having unprecedented interest in his fights even as a rookie. In the long and storied history of boxing he is the only boxer to have all of his fights on pay-per-view.
Many tuned in to see him fail. Even in his failures his athletic pedigree was undeniable. Most notably against Mikkel Kessler and recently Joshua Clottey, ‘The Man’ showed that he possessed the heart of a champion.
Against local champions Daniel Geale, Sam Soliman, Danny Green and Shannon Taylor he showed the fight IQ and speed of a champion. Unfortunately his record has been diluted in the past by fighters that were considered beneath him.
It was questioned whether he was game to face quality opposition any more. In taking this next fight after his loss to Clottey he has shown he is as game as a bull ant. There is nowhere to hide in boxing. It is a dangerous place for those without courage.
Sergey Rabchenko is no tomato can. The 28-year-old Belarusian powerhouse is undefeated in 25 fights and has finished 18 of them. He is trained by former world number one fighter and Kostya Tszyu’s nemesis, Ricky Hatton. He has the ability to beat Mundine and hurt him very badly in the process. But to Anthony Mundine that is the price of immortality.
On the line is the WBC Silver light middleweight title that earns a mandatory challenge to the best boxer in the world – Floyd Mayweather.
On Wednesday night the most controversial sportsman in Australia’s proud sporting history may very well place himself in a position that could have him in the same conversations as Rod Laver, Campese and Shane Warne.
Were he to get a crack at Saul Alverez or Floyd Mayweather – win or lose – it would be an unprecedented accomplishment in sports.
Never short on sound bites proclaiming that he is indeed the greatest athlete ever, there has at times been a tongue-in-cheek to his extroverted chest beating. Although often this rhetoric is peppered with outrage-inducing social commentary on September 11, homosexuals and the Aboriginality of other indigenous sportsmen, his claims on his athletic prowess and sporting achievements when weighed certainly fall in his favour.
His most recent was insisting that Jarryd Haynes’ leap across to the NFL is easier than what he has attempted and accomplished in boxing. No doubt it is. Boxing is not a sport that comes from rugby roots like the NFL. It still hosts the two highest paid sports stars on the planet. Both in Mundine’s weight class.
Although it may be the last fight of his career, it may very well be the leap into the history books that we watch on Wednesday night. I have a funny feeling that one day I will be telling my grandkids that, “I once saw Anthony Mundine fight”.
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