Mundine-Green Fight Likely

[pies4ever]

$2m challenge
By Grantlee Kieza
26feb04

ANTHONY MUNDINE will be offered $2 million next week to fight Danny Green as the battle to stage Australia's biggest boxing match intensifies.







Green's manager, Jeff Fenech, has taken the extraordinary step of marching into Mundine's Sydney cafe to try to persuade him to sign on the dotted line.
The $2 million offer, double the amount on the table for Green, will be made by John Farnham's manager, Glenn Wheatley, who promoted Kostya Tszyu's last world title fight.

Wheatley hopes to stage the Green-Mundine fight at the 22,000-seat Sydney SuperDome later this year.

His original offer to Mundine, believed to be more than $1.3 million, was rejected by "The Man" and manager Khoder Nasser.

"Danny Green is ready to fight for $1 million, so we are halfway to making the fight happen," Wheatley said yesterday from New Zealand, where he is staging a Farnham concert in a vineyard near Napier.

"We just have to convince Anthony and Khoder Nasser to take the fight.

"It's a risky bout for both men and, obviously, they both want to be well compensated.

"So I have to up the ante significantly from my original offer to Anthony.

"It's the biggest fight in Australia and will be a blockbuster when it happens."

Mundine, the WBA super-middleweight champion, is due to face the No. 1 contender, hard-hitting Puerto Rican Manny Siaca, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in the first week of May.

WBC interim champ Green will face a former Mundine rival, New Zealander Sean Sullivan, in Perth on March 21. Both fights will be shown on pay television.

Green will then meet the winner of this weekend's WBC title fight between German Markus Beyer and South African Andre Thysse.

After his visit to Mundine's cafe, Fenech said: "I'd like to think that we can make the fight happen. Anthony is demanding at least 70 per cent of the total purse because he says he's the man everyone wants to see but we should take a poll to see who is more popular.

"Anthony told me he wants to fight Sven Ottke, who knocked out Mundine in 2001, and then he'll fight Danny for the right purse.

"I asked Anthony if the stumbling block to him signing to fight Danny was a fear he would lose to another Aussie. He said he didn't think he would lose against Danny.

"He said he was a person with dignity and said he wanted to step into the firing line and see if he really was The Man rather than not fight Danny and be wondering about it for the rest of his life.

"I respect him for saying that. I just wish he would prove it by taking the fight.

"Danny wants to fight him badly, very badly.

"If Anthony accepts the $2 million, we'll accept $1 million because we can get sponsorship to make up the difference in Danny's purse.

"Anthony is one of this country's greatest all-round athletes. I just don't think he can beat Danny. Hopefully, he'll take the opportunity to prove me wrong."

cheers bryan..!!

[tazza2000]

Can't wait for this one, alot of people have been saying that mundine can't match it with the best of the boxers so if he can win this one he should put the wind up a few of his critics.

Hell, i'd fight danny green for $2M, mind you it wouldn't be much of a match

[Yobbo^LuKa]

Mundine should retire before Green sends him into retirement. This is going to be the very very very public demise of "The Sham" aka "The Man", Mundine.

He will begin by talking crap for a few weeks leading up to the fight. Turn up to the fight to try and win and end up finding out that no amount of sh!t talking he does can save him from the Green Machine. Green will slaughter the little crap talker!