Anthony+Mundine

The name Anthony Mundine polarises the public. People either love him or hate him. This is because Mundine has focused on showmanship; he claims big things for himself and in this way is always sure of a big audience - even if not everyone wants to see him win! Anthony Mundine was born in the Inner West of Sydney, Newtown on May 25 1975. His father, Tony Mundine who was a middleweight professional boxer was enjoying an impressive run as one of Australia’s most professional boxers. Anthony was always very active when he was young. When he was attending high School, he was already playing Junior Rugby League for Hurstville United. In 1993 he played for the Australian Schoolboys Team. That particular year Anthony signed up with the St. George Dragons at the age of eighteen. Mundine was chosen to represent NSW in the state of Origin in all 3 matches in 1999. He led the Dragons to the Grand Final by making 3 tries in the semi finals against the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks. Mundine missing a try led them to the loss of the Grand Final against the Melbourne storms. A friend suggested to him to try out boxing. His father strongly disagreed by saying it was a dead sport. But Anthony replied he would make it come back alive. Halfway through the season in 2000 Mundine announced he was going to box. He left the highest Nrl pay at that time which was $600,000. Anthony’s father had intensively trained him so he could be ready for his first boxing match. At the age of 25 Anthony fought his first professional boxing match. His opponent was from New Zealand, Gerrard Zohs. Soon the IBF and WBF titles were vacant since Sven Ottke, the previous IBF and WBF champion took on Super Champion IBF and WBF. Mundine took this chance and successfully claimed the spot over Antwun Echols by a unanimous point’s decision. However, he lost his title in the next match over Manny Siaca in 2003. Anthony Mundine once again attempted to re gain the title of WBF but miserably failed in the Sydney Entertainment Centre over Mikkler Kesseler on the 6th of August 2005. Mundine and Green had a match on 17 May 2006 at the Aussie Stadium Sydney, this was one of Australia’s most watched fights in Australian history and it was thought it smashed the ratings of the 1992 match with Jeff Fenech and Azumah Nelson. Green was the favourite 2 hours before the match. During the fight Green had became tired and Mundine took this chance to gain the upper hand. Anthony won the 12 matches with a unanimous decision. However, Mundine’s greatest rival Danny Green knocked out Mundine’s career in December 2010 in the 10th round lasting only 58 seconds. Even though many people think of Anthony as a reckless and egocentric person, he actually has done many things to help his fellow aborigines. The block, a big house for homeless aborigines was going to be controlled by the NSW government. Anthony Mundine and many other people united to stop this from happening. Mundine has seemed destined to reach the top of the ladder but only for the briefest of moments.