Eaton Thatcher
Anthony Mundine (+165) vs Danny Green (-175), Draw (+2500)
After ten years of waiting, the second grudge match between Australians Danny Green (35-5, 28 KO) and Anthony Mundine (47-7, 27 KO) will finally take place on February 3,2017, at the Adelaide Oval. The bitter rivals faced off for the first time in 2006 in what was the biggest pay-per-view event in Australian history.
That was ten years ago and a lot has changed since. Mundine will be 41 years old and Green will be almost 44 at the time of the rematch. Both have had their fair share of injuries and intend the upcoming mega-fight to be their last. Though the two Australian legends are well past their primes, the fight is expected to shatter all previous pay-per-view records in Australia.
When they first met, the two fighters agreed to fight at super middleweight. Green, being a natural light heavyweight, had to cut an unbelievable amount to make weight. He looked emaciated while Mundine was comfortably within his range.
The fight went the full 12 rounds, with Mundine overwhelming Green with his speed and superior movement. He won by unanimous decision despite Green’s attempts to put him away in the later rounds.
But Green is in a much better position coming into the rematch. The fighters agreed to fight at a catch-weight of 83 kg (roughly 183 lbs), putting Green right where he wants to be. Mundine, on the other hand, will be leaping four weight divisions. This is particularly dangerous for Mundine seeing as he has been knocked down quite easily in his last few fights against fighters who weighed much less.
Green stands two inches taller than Mundine with a three-inch reach advantage. He’s significantly slower than Mundine but packs a much heavier punch. At 83 kg, he’ll have all his power at his disposal.
Mundine is also coming back from a hip replacement surgery that put him out for the entire year. Meanwhile, Green fought Kane Watts in his sole fight of 2016 to win the Australian cruiserweight title by unanimous decision.
While Mundine still has the speed to out-box Green, he will be dangerously out-sized by his opponent. At 83 kg, Green will have a much easier time than when the two met a decade ago.
Pick: Danny Green (-175)
Photo credit: “Mundine” by Eva Rinaldi CC BY-SA 2.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0], via Flickr.
