Tomorrow night, Wednesday 12 November 2014 sees Anthony “The Man” Mundine (46-6, 27 KOs) return to the ring to take on the dangerous undefeated Belarussian, Sergey Rabchenko (25-0, 18 KOs) for the WBC Silver junior middleweight title at Hisense Arena, Melbourne, Australia.
Following today’s weigh in, Mundine sat down to chat with ESB about his thoughts on the bout ahead with Rabchenko.
Looking at tomorrow night, you’re back in Melbourne. It’s been six years. How do you feel to be back in Melbourne fighting in a big event?
It’s good man. I mean Melbourne always comes out as they have been (here). The crowd is good, a good reception out here. I enjoy the city. I liked it when I came here to play footy, so it’s good. They show me more love than friggin Sydney.
You’ve just weighed in, how does your body feel ahead of tomorrow?
It feels good. It’ll feel a lot better when I get some carbs in me! But it feels good at the moment. I made it pretty comfortably. I done a bit of steaming and stuff, I had a bit of water weight on. But I got rid of that, so I’m ready.
What’s the plan for the next 24 hours going into the fight?
Just carb up! Think about the fight mentally. Run over what I need to do, if I’m put in a situation. I know the guy wants to power box me and walk me down. But at times, I’m going to have to go to him, to establish my position.
How do you view Rabchenko? He’s got the KO ratio, he looks dangerous. What are your thoughts of him as a fighter?
He’s a good young, up and comer, strong fighter. He’s a good prospect. But I’m a seasoned veteran. I think my experience, I’m going to make him go into deep water late in the fight.
It’s your fourth fight in the past two years featuring big name opponents. How do you feel fighting big names on such a regular basis?
I just want the big fights, that’s all I want! I want the big fights. That’s all I want. And god willing I get over this hump, give me another big name. I just want the biggest names out there.
Obviously it’s the mandatory for Floyd, but obviously I don’t think I’m going to get Floyd. But I don’t want to get Floyd, I want to earn my right and to earn it I want another big name, I want Canelo. I think it’ll be a good matchup.
With your plans now, is 154 the way you’re going? You had Geale at 160…
I was always going for 154. The Geale fight I just took because of the opportunity, there was nothing coming up for me. I wanted to stay at 154 but I said I’ll come up to 160 to fight Geale no problem. But I am a 154 fighter now. For certain fights I will step up, because when there’s good fights, there’s good money.
With the body, you had the Clottey fight and it didn’t turn out so good. Do you feel more fresh heading into this fight?
I feel good! Man, to be honest after the Clottey fight in the morning I felt fresh, I felt like I didn’t have a fight. That’s how I felt. But obviously the fight didn’t go as planned. That wasn’t me, when I look at that fight I can tell it wasn’t me. I can tell it wasn’t me, I wasn’t there mentally. Not making no excuses. But you need to turn up at this level every time. That (the result) made me work more on a lot of the fundamentals I wasn’t working on, to get my defence right.
And your time in Melbourne, you hit up Culture Kings last Friday. How was that?
Yeah man, it was all good, got some love there. Got a fresh cut!
Any final thoughts ahead of tomorrow…
Just want to relax, focus on the fight and get some food into me.
Mundine – Rabchenko will be broadcast live on Main Event in Australia from 7:30PM AEDT.
