Mundine Breaks Down Brave Browne In 2

Former world champion Anthony Mundine claimed the vacant WBO Oriental Middleweight title in Pyrmont, New South Wales on Wednesday via a second round tko vicotry over Tommy Browne-but not before Browne had given him all the trouble he could handle in the opening round.

Browne threw plenty of leather in the first round, pushing Mundine backwards, and clearly getting the better of him, to the delight of the crowd in attendance. It looked as though Mundine’s long career could finally be at an end but the controversial former Super middleweight title came out in the second revitalized and all guns blazing. Browne quickly retreated onto the ropes as Mundine unleashed a combination of punches to force the stoppage at the end of the second round.

Mundine improves to 48-8 while Browne to 35-7-2.

When asked where to now Mundine called out WBO Welterweight champion Jeff Horn saying it is the fight the fans want to see and he didn’t care whether it happened before or after a planned fight with unbeaten American Terence Crawford.

There has been plenty of banter in the Australian media about a potential showdown between the Horn and Mundine at 154lbs. However, while no contract has been signed at this stage for Horn to face Crawford – it is likely to happen in the USA in April. Mundine’s second round demolition of Browne will certainly fire the talks up about a potential showdown between Horn and Mundine at some stage.

On the undercard IBF World Youth Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia successfully defended his Australian title stopping his game but injured previously undefeated opponent Ben Kelleher in the third round. The opening round was entertaining and even with plenty of punches and movement from both men. . The second round saw Jai more aggressive and landing the crisper punches however, Kelleher injured his hand when he launched an uppercut which wound up on the point of Jai’s elbow. Clearly in a lot of pain, Kelleher managed to battle on finishing the round. Kelleher boxed on into the third round gallantly but clearly unable to use his right hand. Jai was controlling the flow of the round landing some telling left hands until the ref stopped the fight later in the round.

Opetaia improves his record to 14 fights undefeated with 11 KO’s while Kelleher registered his first loss in 10 fights.

Opetaia’s manager Michael Francis said after the fight: “We welcome a rematch with Ben some time later in the year as the fight was likely to be an exciting battle up until the injury in the second round.

“For now, we intend to challenge Commonwealth champion Luke Watkins for his title. Luke is 13-0 while Jai now moves to 14-0 and we are prepared to travel or perhaps stage the fight here in Sydney. Our matchmaker Stuart Duncan will be reaching out to Watkins camp tomorrow”.

In other action heavyweight prospect Ben Sila (1-0) put in a great performance to secure a unanimous three round decision win over former NRL star Richie Fa’aoso in a real crowd pleaser. Sila looked fairly composed in the first securing the round with the cleaner landed blows while the second round was a close one. Fa’aoso was the busier fighter in the third session and rallied well, but not enough to secure him the fight. Sila showed some promising signs with good hand speed and appears to have some power in his shots, and rightfully got the decision.

In a lightweight bout Kye MacKenzie, 18-1, took on game Argentine puncher Emiliano Martin Garcia (16-1) who was a little out of his depth against the hard hitting MacKenzie. While Garcia had his moments landing some good solid shots in the second and third rounds MacKenzie was clearly the bigger stronger fighter and the referee stopped the contest after the second knockdown in the third round.

“Mackenzie wanted fellow Aussie lightweight George Kambosos for this fight to ‘no avail’ and Garcia was secured on late notice just before Christmas. Now Kye wants to fight either Qamil Balla or challenge Commonwealth Champ Sean Dodd”, stated No Limit Matchmaker Stuart Duncan.

The opener bout was a crowd pleaser with local Super Welterweight Troy O’Meley taking on Dillon Bargero over six rounds. It was a seesaw battle from the opening round with both boxers having their moments. While O’Meley appeared to have the opening rounds under his belt, Bargero dug deep as he is known to do and landed some solid shots and winning some of the middle rounds. It was a close fight and a difficult one to score, though, Troy O’Meley got the nod by split decision in an excellent fight.

Troy O’Meleys manager Grant Howells said after the figh: “it was a great experience for Troy who now moves onto five fights undefeated and he is sure will have learned plenty from this one and will continue improving. Troy will be fighting again in March against an opponent to be confirmed and plans are underway for us to stage an event in his hometown of Cessnock in May. We want

to keep Troy busy and plan to have him fight five more times in 2018.”

Promoter Matt Rose (No Limits) said he was ecstatic with the event which was well received by the crowd and Fox Sports. “It had a bit of everything – Mundine is a human headline and always brings an exciting fight to the ring, along with his usual trademark controversy. We had a young heavyweight taking on a former NRL player – we showcased World Youth Champ in 22 year old Jai Opetaia pitching him against another undefeated Aussie. Mr Frenzy MacKenzie delivered the KO which all boxing fans are always eager to see, and we always knew Troy O’Meley & Dillon Bargero was going to be a war which is why we made it the opener to get the fans going. With the night finishing the way that it did with the Mundine Brown fight, the fans certainly got what they came for. Now it is back to the drawing board to see where to next with ‘Choc’ and we will meet in the coming days to discuss our next move and hopefully have him back in the ring mid year. I would like to thank the fans for their support being a sell out, Fox Sports for their continued support and my matchmaker Stuart Duncan who always manages to deliver exciting fights.”