Weeks shy of his 40th birthday, Anthony Mundine sees himself boxing for another two years as he prepares to fight Austin Trout in one of the most significant bouts of his career.
Mundine flies out to Texas on Thursday to defend his WBC Silver middleweight title when he takes on former world champion Trout on Saturday week.
Victory in just his second fight in the US could put fourth-ranked Mundine in some contention for his dream match-up against Floyd “Money” Mayweather – a match up he’s grandly labelled a battle between “the best boxer of our era against the best athlete of our era”.
Mayweather faces Manny Pacquiao in one of the biggest fight sin boxing history this weekend – a fight Mundine tips Mayweather to win.
Time may be running out for Mundine with Mayweather saying he’ll fight only once more after Pacquiao before hanging up the gloves.
But Mundine has no such plans himself.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s no Mayweather. Whoever is next. (Miguel) Cotto, (Saul) Alvarez. Whoever are the biggest stars line them up,” he said.
“I don’t want to go for that long. Maybe two years.
“I just want to fight the biggest fights I can get.”
But before then Mundine has to get past Trout, who has never been stopped and holds a record of 28 wins and two losses.
Mundine played down any concerns over an elbow injury, insisting it wouldn’t affect him and he wouldn’t entertain the notion of losing, with the fight a chance to finally break into the US boxing scene.
“It’s not just important to win but how I win and what impact I have on the American fans,” he said.
“My style is like the Alis the Ray Leonards the Sugar Ray Robinsons. I’m very appealing to the eye.
“Americans love that style. I want to make the most impact I can to get as many mouths talking about me as I can.
“There can not be a loss.”
At 29, Trout, a strong southpaw, is over a decade younger than Mundine but The Man has a plan.
“I’m going to make him engage,” Mundine said.
“I can out-box him too if I want to. I can box, I can fight, I can counter-punch. I can do everything better than what he does.
“I don’t think he’s got enough manhood to take me on and we’ll find that out.
“Trout might be talking a lot of game but he knows I can fight and he knows he’s got to be on his A game to try and beat me.
“When he’s on his ass and he’s looking at me I’m gonna tell him ‘that’s not bad for a bum’.”
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