By Srithar Visuasam: Anthony Mundine (40-3, 25 KOs) scored his first knockout win in almost three years, stopping fellow Australian Ryan Waters (20-3-2, 12 KOs) 24 seconds in the tenth round of their WBA junior middleweight title eliminator bout in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia tonight.
In his second bout in the division, the 35 year old former three time world champion (twice at super middleweight and once at middleweight) controlled the fight from the outset with his jab..
Waters, though was not to be intimidated by his opponents’ superior hand speed and took the fight to Mundine, continually pressing the action with Mundine fighting from the outside for majority of each round.
With an accidental head clash causing a cut above Mundine’s left eye in the fourth round and regular rabbit punches thrown by Waters (that resulted in a formal warning by referee Will Soulos), the fight was not the cleanest affair.
After showing strong resistance for the first seven rounds, holes began to open in Waters defence by the eight, with fatigue and the steady accumulation of blows from Mundine beginning to take its toll.
A flurry of punches saw the referee give Waters a standing eight count moments before the end of the ninth round. At the beginning of the tenth, Mundine continued his assault with another combination of blows sending Waters to the canvas with the fight shortly waved off moments later.
After the bout, Mundine looked clearly satisfied at recording the stoppage which was his first knockout since his fourth round stoppage of Jose Alberto Clavero in December 2007 (nine fights ago) and his first stoppage at a weight below super middleweight.
At the mid stages of the fight where Waters was at his most dangerous, it looked unlikely with Waters seemingly unfazed by his power. To Mundine’s credit, he continued his steady approach and ramped up the intensity at the right time to score the knockout and an opportunity at the WBA junior middleweight title.
With the world title shot now set up against either interim champion Nobuhiro Ishida (22-5-2, 7 KOs) or champion Miguel Cotto (35-2, 28 KOs) sometime in the new year, Anthony Mundine will next take on Contender Australia winner Garth Wood (9-1-1, 5 KOs) in December.
As winner of The Contender Australia in January this year, the prize of victory for Wood included a match up with Mundine and guaranteed purse of $250,000 for the fight. The bout between Mundine and Wood will be at middleweight, which works out to be a catch weight between the two fighters, with Mundine now campaigning at junior middleweight and Wood normally a super middleweight.
Wood also triumphed in his bout on the card against Filipino Elvin Marbun (13-10-2, 6 KOs) in the semi main event of the night, scoring a knockout 1 minute and 40 seconds into the first round.
Other fights on the night included Johannes Mwetupunga (9-2, 4 KOs) successfully defend his Australian middleweight title against Kurt Bahram (9-2, 3 KOs) over 10 hard fought rounds and former IBO featherweight champion Billy Dib (29-1, 17 KOs) easily account for Jack Asis (21-17-4, 10 KOs) of the Phillipines by fourth round stoppage.