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 Danny Green – An Australian Looking to Show the US what the Super Middleweight Title Looks Like
 By Thomas Gerbasi (May 25, 2004)
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NEW YORK - US boxing fans - are you tired of never seeing the super middleweight title travel to these shores, disappointed that you never got to see the top 168-pounders in the world, like Joe Calzaghe (now campaigning as a light heavyweight) and newly retired Sven Ottke, battle it out with a championship on the line?
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Cheer up, because Australia’s Danny Green just may be your man.
“Could you imagine if Sven Ottke or Markus Beyer fought once outside of their own country?” asked Green during a trip to New York City last week. “Just once? Could you imagine if they hopped on a plane and flew overseas? They’d get the wobbles and fall over at the weigh in.”
Green, outspoken and cocky in the best sense of the word, currently holds the interim WBC super middleweight belt, and if he has his way, his next stop will be the United States.
"I just want to come over here and hopefully the Americans like the way I fight,” said Green, 18-1 with 17 KOs. "I come to fight and that’s my style. I don’t shirk my responsibilities inside the ring. It’s simple, I’ve got a job to do and I like to let my fists do the talking. If the going gets tough, that’s when I start to get going. I enjoy it. It’s a fight. People pay good money to sit ringside, let’s give them a show. Let’s not mess around, let’s get in there and do the job.”
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That’s an attitude that not only Americans love, and one that should bring Danny plenty of “Green” in the future. It’s also got promoter Lou DiBella smiling from ear to ear at the mere mention of his name.
"I think Danny, of the young fighters, is the most exciting guy out there between 168 and 175,” said DiBella. "He’s a 2000 Olympian himself, and anyone who saw him fight Eric Lucas – and unfortunately most people in the States haven’t seen that fight – he destroyed Eric Lucas. He ruined him, and Roy Jones couldn’t destroy him. Now I’m not making any comparisons, and I don’t think Danny would compare himself with Roy Jones; Roy Jones is a great, great fighter. But Danny Green is a larger Aussie version, in my view, of what I used to see in Arturo Gatti, when I first started looking at Gatti.”
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Lofty praise indeed, and Green is flattered by such comparisons.
"That’s a pretty big rep to live up to,” he said. "Arturo Gatti is a legend. For Lou to say something like that about me is an honor, but I have a long way to go before I do anything like Arturo does. He’s just a legend. Everyone knows who Arturo Gatti is. In Australia, I think the boxing purists know Arturo Gatti’s real attributes, and even the people who don’t follow boxing that much appreciate him because they always see him in wars, and they go, ‘this guy’s unbelieveable.’ He’s got so much courage, so much heart, and he also has a world of skill that sometimes I think he forgets he has. It’s amazing; the guy can fight defensively and offensively.”
Thus far in his career Green has decided to let the defensive end of his game lapse a bit in favor of an unbridled offensive attack. And he has walked through his opposition with extreme prejudice.
After 16 wins without a loss, all by knockout, Green traveled to Germany in August of last year to face Markus Beyer. Green - who many felt left Beyer intimidated before the opening bell even rang – dropped the champion twice early in the fight, and was seemingly on his way to a clearcut victory when a cut suffered by Beyer halted the fight in the fifth round. But we’ll let Green tell the rest of the story.
"I went to Germany and punched Beyer from pillar to post, and after five rounds they disqualified me,” said Green. "I opened his eye up in round two. The fight should have been stopped in round three and I should have been declared the winner. 11 minutes later they said they were going to the scorecards when they stopped the fight because he couldn’t continue because his cut was so bad. The doctor jumped in the ring and overruled the referee’s decision of going to the scorecards and disqualified me for a clash of heads, when a punch caused that cut three rounds earlier.”
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"But that’s history.”
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Green doesn’t hide his disgust regarding his trip to Germany, yet with the bad odor around the stoppage lingering, he was given a shot at the WBC interim title four months later against another victim of shoddy German officiating, Eric Lucas (who had lost a controversial decision to Beyer). Unfortunately for Lucas, he took the brunt of Green’s frustration on December 20 of last year. And Green went into Montreal to do it.
"As Aussies do, you drop your head and go away or you dig deep and dig your way out of the trenches,” said Green. “I was very proud of the fact that three months later I went to Montreal, to his backyard, in front of 12,000 fans and stopped him in six rounds. I’ve got a lot of respect for that man. He’s just a warrior and he showed so much heart and courage in his fights, and out of the ring he seems like such a humble man and a family man, and I respect that. I respect who he is, not only as a fighter, but also as a person. He showed me a lot of respect in his home country, which is great.”
A family man himself (Green and his wife Nina were celebrating their wedding anniversary on the day of the press conference; they also have a young daughter), Green can be a huge success in the States, not only with his fighting style, but also with the looks and personality that go along with being a star. DiBella has had his eye on the 31-year-old for a while.
"I started liking him as a fighter in Sydney,” said DiBella. "I was surprised to see an Aussie kid that looked that strong. It struck me even in the Olympics that his style was a pro style, and he’s proved it in the pro game. He’s by far the best fighter in Australia, and I think he’s one of the best young fighters in the world, and I think he has the potential to be a force at 168 pounds.”
Plus Green has a great teacher in Hall of Famer Jeff Fenech, who has been guiding his career as manager and trainer.
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"Jeff wants to instill the style of boxing that he had, and he realizes that he’s got someone who has a similar attitude to what he used to have,” said Green. “Our attitudes are the same. I believe that my will is stronger than yours and I’m going to impose my will on you and hopefully I’m gonna crack you, mentally and physically. I want to break you down mentally before the fight starts and physically I want to break you down while the fight’s going on.”
But in this age of self-preservation, why fight in a style that usually equates to a short (but explosive) career?
"I guess I’ve always been that way – live fast, die young,” said Green. "It’s simple. I’ve been born and bred on the coast as a surfer and I like taking risks. I love thrills. I obviously want to improve my footwork more, and I’ve been working a lot of the defensive side of boxing. Early on in my career I just went straightforward and let my ramrod left hand go and follow it up with a jackhammer right, and hopefully it landed and done the job. But I’ve got to be smarter. The better the quality the opposition I come up against, the harder it’s gonna be for me. I can’t just expect to walk through guys all the time.”
It will sure be fun watching him try though. Green, who went the distance for the first time in March while fighting Sean Sullivan with a viral infection, has plenty of options, but many of them hinge on whether the WBC stays in business or not.
"If the WBC survives its present situation, and hopefully it will with the bankruptcy, Danny Green will fight (unbeaten Mikkel) Kessler and then may have to fight Markus Beyer,” said DiBella. "So there are one or two fights that are likely to take place outside of the States for economic reasons. But I want to start working with Danny and Jeff Fenech, I want to start promoting Danny, and I think that if people get an opportunity to see him, they’re going to understand why I’m so excited and why the smile came to my face.”
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DiBella’s grand plan of course is to put him in fights that will rival Gatti-Ward for thrills.
"I promote Charles Brewer and assuming that the WBO doesn’t engage in any further shenanigans, he will fight (Mario) Veit for the 168-pound title, and I expect him to win that fight,” Said DiBella, who would then look to match Brewer in a unification bout with Green, and who also mentioned his interest in a bout between Green and New Englander Scott Pemberton.
Needless to say, it’s an exciting time for “The Green Machine”.
"To unify the titles would be a dream come true, but one thing at a time, I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” said Green. "We want to see what happens with the WBC and hopefully if all goes well and I beat Beyer, then I want to bring the title over to America. I want to make an impact in America because obviously that’s where the pulse of boxing is. That’s where boxing lives and I think other countries kind of feed off of what America does. If you can make it in America then you know you’ve made it, and I just hope the fans over here appreciate the way I fight and the way I conduct myself in and outside the ring.”
Danny Green, you’re welcome here anytime.
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E-Mail Thomas Gerbasi at tgerbasi@mindspring.com
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