Trying to find a pub that is showing the Anthony Mundine vs Garth Wood fight live tonight has been like finding support for Kevin Muscat’s tackling style. Tough.
I shouldn’t be surprised. It certainly seems that Australian boxing is on its very last legs.
We’ve had poor performances at the recent Commonwealth and Olympics Games, farces like the Danny Green-Paul Briggs fight, been under attack by UFC and had public indifference to some of our real up-and-coming boxers such as Lenny Zappavigna, Billy Dib and Michael Katsidis.
Poor promotion, bad decisions, some lame fighters and terrible organisation has meant local boxing has taken several hits to the head.
At the moment, it’s still standing, but after several knock-downs, it’s barely holding on.
When Anthony Mundine retired from rugby league and took up boxing he was widely commended for revitalising the sport in this country.
The highpoint of interest was his clash with Danny Green, which he defeated, back in 2006.
This came a year after our adopted champion Kosta Tszyu, undoubtedly one of the greatest boxers of all time, lost to Ricky Hatton.
Though the rot was beginning before this, Australian boxing has gone downhill very quickly.
Mundine and Green have faded to the point where they either fight very old (Roy Jones Jr, Antonio Tarver) or very in-experienced fighters (Garth Wood) or very out-muscled fighters (Manny Siaca, Ryan Waters, Carlos Jervez).
They are no longer willing or able to fight the best.
The media and the wider public shows very little interest in the next brigade of Aussie fighters coming through, although the ranks are hardly busting at this point. Internationally, boxing is devoid of great fighters.
There are a few milling around, like Manny Pacquaio and Floyd Mayweather, but the odds of getting them together in a ring are about the same as Cronulla winning this year’s NRL grand final.
The heavyweight division is a joke. The best boxers rarely fight year other and there are so many title belts that there is very little credibility.
So what is the answer? Can Australian boxing return to the glory days? Can it get back off the canvas? I’d like to think so but I’m far from hopeful.
Let’s start by getting rid of the league-players turned boxers.
Apart from Mundine who came from a boxing background, the rest – John Hopoate, Solomon Haumono, Sonny Bill Willaims – have been detrimental to the sport.
Let’s start by arranging it so the best boxers take on each other.
Let’s start by putting some credibility back into the sport and spruiking the worthy local talents that are out there now and those emerging – apparently Kosta Tszyu’s two sons Timophey and Nikita are very promising amateurs, but they still have a long way to go. Getting boxing onto free-to-air television again would help, but so would a consolidation of boxing organisations. We simply don’t need all of the WBC, WBA, WBO, IBF and IBO.
Adam Santarossa wrote a great piece on The Roar recently hoping for a Wood victory over Mundine that would help give the local boxing landscape a shake-up.
I think Wood’s chances against Mundine are very slim. Wood is a fighter who is big on heart but light on technique, someone who bleeds easily and was very lucky to win The Contender.
Will Wood beat Mundine again? Unlikely. Would a Wood win be good for Australian boxing? Maybe.
Does anyone really care anymore? That’s the real question.
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