By Robert Brown: If you have paid any attention to me in the past, you may have realized that I have previously criticized Anthony Mundine for fighting over matched opponents. Well, it seems to me that Danny Green is unfortunately falling into that same trap..
I can understand to a certain degree with Green fighting Roy Jones, because even though he was quite clearly well past his prime at that stage, which was evident by the fact that Jones had been knocked out by the likes of Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver, but Jones was still a marquee name with massive popularity and a credible record, and to be able to bring someone of that stature to Australia to compete for a title could be regarded as positive promotion for the country, because it put Australian boxing into the world spotlight, and give it the opportunity to showcase itself to the rest of the world.
However, since that momentous occasion Danny Green has fought a bunch of blown up light heavyweights with his most credible opponent to date being BJ Flores.who was a real cruiserweight Flores on paper looked good as he was undefeated at that time, but in my opinion his record had been manufactured to look better than it appeared because the record had been padded by wins against a number of unrecognized opponents, and up until his bout with Danny Green he had not fought any serious contenders in that cruiserweight division.
Danny Green had previously stated before his comeback that on his return he would only fight the big fights against the big names, but since then the only big name he had fought had been Roy Jones, which, based on my earlier argument about Jones’s multiple knock outs, has taken much of the credibility away from the green victory. His next defense is in July against the former light heavy weight champion Antonio Tarver, which again is a match against a name rather than a threat. Tarver now spends most of his time as a commentator for the ShowTime network rather than a fighting, and is not a serious threat to Danny Green’s crown.
Danny Green should be fighting the likes of Marco Huck and Guillermo Jones which would establish him as a dangerous force in the cruiserweight division. Instead he and Anthony Mundine are in danger of making the Australian boxing scene irrelevant on the world stage instead of putting it at boxing’s forefront, which Green is in the unique position to be able to accomplish.
Either way you look Australian boxing will lose as a result of this fight. If Green beats Tarver, in the eyes of the boxing world he will just be beating a former world champion on the decline, and if Green looses the boxing world will decide what the majority have already decided, which is that Green is not a great champion, and as a result Green may as well hang up the gloves.
The Paul Briggs defense brought so much negative attention onto the Australian boxing world that a title defense of this magnitude against “Tarver” is the last thing the Australian boxing world needs. I must state that it is not my intention, being Australian myself, to damage Australian boxing’s reputation in any way, however I believe it is my job to point out the problems in Australian boxing so that Australian boxing can take its rightful place as a major piece of the world wide boxing landscape.
It is also not my intention to unfairly criticize Danny Green, however, as an ambassador to Australian boxing in his role of cruiserweight champion, Danny Green should be doing more to promote Australian boxing by fighting higher quality contenders. Furthermore it is my belief that the only way to get the big fights he should be seeking is to move out from his back yard and fight abroad, otherwise to the wider boxing community, Danny Green will just be considered as another fighter in a long line of paper champions.