Thursday, May 18, 2006

Mundine won the WBA Elimination bout against Green

The Man made it look easy. I think Mundine only really fought about 3 or 4 times in the entire fight. It was almost too easy for him.

Green had one strategy and even though it clearly didn't work he kept trying it. I got the impression Mundine was just playing with him most of the time.

From the outset of the fight Green boxed low and hard. He attempted to soften up Mundine's ribs and stomach with the odd swing at the face and ears. Mundine dogded, ducked weaved, skipped and danced away from it all and when cornered or forced onto the ropes simply covered up and took the fairly weak looking hits.
In contrast Mundines style was to lead with his left forearm and his left shoulder. His stance was very sideways and in quite direct opposition to Greens far more open stance. Almost every thing Mundine did was with his left jab and even though Green was taller and had a longer reach the appearance was that Mundine was both taller and longer. Often Mundine would just hold his left hand fully extended and touch Green on the head, almost daring him to try and come inside that long arm and receive a pummelling. To Green's credit he didn't most of the time, though a couple of times Mundine's taunts raised his ire and he came inside and got punished by quick left left right combinations by Mundine.

Mundine showboated constantly - dropping his guard, playing unorthodox games with his jab feints, playing shoulder dropping, poking his toungue, laughing at Greens wife and openly ignoring Green from time to time. I got the impression he was trying to force Green to lose his temper and then we may have seen a different fight. It was clear however from about round 3 on that Green's only chance was to go for a knockout but it never looked likely.

Mundine did go down twice - the first time he was pushed through the ropes by Green in a comedic tussle, the second slipping on sweat in the middle of the ring forcing a timeout while it was mopped.

In the end a unanimous points decision to Mundine. I was a little disappointed that Green wasn't up to the task. Mundine's abilities were lurking but they remained latent except for a couple of brief moments where he stepped into Green and started rapid combinations including telling hits. I can't wait to see him fight someone who is in his class.


Posted by: Jethro | 12:36 AM |