Prominent members of Australia’s boxing community have dismissed Anthony Mundine’s claim he was robbed in his world title fight with Daniel Geale, but have also expressed some disappointment at the champion’s performance.
Geale avenged his 2009 points loss to Mundine with a unanimous decision at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in a IBF middleweight title fight that finished just after midnight on Thursday morning.
Mundine subsequently claimed he “walked into an ambush” and had been robbed.
It was hard to find a major boxing figure outside of his team or friends who disagreed with the judges, two of whom had Geale winning by six points and the other by four.
“Geale won 95 per cent of every round, I thought he (Mundine) won a round and maybe there were two even rounds,” triple world champion Jeff Fenech told AAP.
Fenech’s old mentor and legendary trainer Johnny Lewis also had Geale way ahead.
“I thought that Daniel Geale won ten of the rounds, certainly not by big margins, any of the rounds, but I always thought nearly in every round he was in total control,” Lewis told AAP.
Geale conceded he could have possibly done more, a sentiment echoed by both Lewis and Fenech.
“To be honest, I’m a bit disappointed, I thought Daniel would have destroyed him after he got on top early,” Fenech said.
“He let him in the fight, he didn’t do the damage I thought he would have done.”
Lewis felt it had been a bit too easy for Geale.
“I was most probably a little disappointed; I thought it was a fight he could have had it all home after the fifth round,” Lewis said.
He maintained Mundine was probably the fastest fighter he had seen, but said he no longer possessed that speed.
Mundine’s great rival Danny Green offered little hope to Mundine of a rematch of their 2006 bout.
“I’m happy with where I’m at and I moved on a long time ago,” said Green, who admitted he didn’t watch the Geale-Mundine fight live as he had already gone to bed before the 11.20pm (AEDT) start.
He thought he knew why Mundine said he had been robbed.
“We all know why he’s saying it, he’s clinging to the hope of another fight with anyone out there. He’s got nowhere to move, nowhere to go,” Green told Fox Sports.
In the lead-up to the fight Mundine had talked about the possible influence Geale’s promoter and boxing powerbroker Gary Shaw might have on the officials, but the man himself dismissed any potential complaint on that score.
“Those were three Australian judges, we purposely didn’t bring anybody in from any other country because I didn’t want Mundine to blame Gary Shaw for, in his mind, fixing the fight,” Shaw said.
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