DANNY Green has responded to Anthony Mundine’s protest in the wake of the West Australian’s victory in their rematch last Friday.
Green won via majority decision in Adelaide, but the Mundine camp lodged a protest with the Australian National Boxing Federation (ANBF) following the bout, which was scored 94-94, 96-94 and 98-90 in Green’s favour.
Mundine and his team are questioning several areas of the fight, including the way it was scored, penalties imposed on Mundine during the contest and claims of bias among the judges. They want the result changed to a “no contest”.
Speaking on Perth radio station Mix 94.5 on Thursday, Green said he wasn’t surprised Mundine chose to go down this path.
“All it is is an appeal, it doesn’t mean anything’s going to happen,” Green said. “I expect nothing less from such a poor sport.
“He showed disgraceful sportsmanship in the ring and I expect nothing less from someone of his character — his poor character — after the fight.”
Green also reinforced his belief that an illegal Mundine punch inside the opening minute was a “dog shot” that prevented him from dominating the fight.
“I’m just disappointed not to carry it out how I felt for the first 30-45 seconds. I felt very confident he was s****ing himself — you could see the look in his eyes,” Green said.
“I hit him with a couple of clean shots, I felt sharp early, then he threw that dog shot and it just changed the game.
“It was just a disgraceful foul, it was incredible that he did it.”
Danny Green celebrates victory.Source:AAP
Criticising Mundine’s character is a sharp about-face from the respect Green showed his opponent once the battle inside the ring was over.
“I want to pay special tribute, I want everyone here to raise their hands and clap — I don’t care what you think, but for putting on a show for all you guys and for being one of the best athletes in the country — a hand clap for Anthony Mundine now please,” Green said.
“Choc’s been an amazing competitor and I’ve got a lot of respect for the bloke.
“He’s a class act, man.”
But class act or not, Mundine was filthy with the result. The two main areas of concern for The Man and his supporters are the scoring of the fight and the penalty handed to Mundine during the first round.
Many experts had Mundine winning the fight, but Green ultimately prevailed. However, when the scorecard was released on social media post-fight, it looked as though judges did not follow correct procedure.
Points deducted are meant to be removed from a fighter’s overall total post-fight and not scored as their rounds total. All judges scored the first round 10-8 to Green after Mundine was penalised for a late punch on the West Australian.
However, when Green was penalised a point for elbowing Mundine in the seventh round, the same process did not occur.
Mundine’s representatives are also disputing the fact the scorecard was released on social media before it was able to be officially signed and verified.
The disputed scorecard.Source:Twitter
Mundine’s camp also alleges referee Frank Garza did not use correct procedure in calling “break” and commanding the fighters to stop in the first round.
Mundine felled Green with a punch after the referee looked to separate the fighters. He still chose to penalise Mundine (despite not officially calling a break), but didn’t allow Green the five minutes recovery allocated when a fighter is ruled to have been fouled.
The ANBF executive will now decide whether to schedule a hearing as outlined in their by-laws.
If the federation agrees, three independent local judges will be locked into three separate rooms with videos of the fight and new scorecards. Their score counts will determine if Green’s win stands or whether the result can be reversed and the fight declared a no decision.
There is some precedence for lodging an appeal in a fight involving Anthony Mundine.
Daniel Geale took that step after losing his IBO Middleweight Title to Mundine on split-decision back in 2009. In that instance an independent panel of judges was called to score the fight and hand in a decision.
It did not result in a change to the decision, but the IBO did rule Mundine would have to make an immediate defence of his title against Geale or be stripped of it.
Mundine would ultimately choose to vacate the title and would not fight Geale again until January 2013.
Anthony Mundine after his loss to Green.Source:AAP
With Mundine and Green not involved in a world title or world title eliminator scenario, no world governing body presided over the contest at the Adelaide Oval, meaning only ANBF rules apply.
Talk of a third fight will intensify following the protest, but it seems both are set for a head to head battle in the legal arena before a potential third bout is signed.
— AAP
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