Choc meets Delahoya

ANTHONY MUNDINE is a step closer to breaking into the tough US boxing market after a meeting in Los Angeles with Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe and pugilistic great Oscar De La Hoya.
Organised by Crowe, the hastily arranged meeting took place on Wednesday at a Pasadena hotel and was also attended by Mundine's manager, Khoder Nasser, and Raul Jaimes, the executive vice-president of De La Hoya's company Golden Boy Promotions.
Crowe, who has been a long-time Mundine supporter, was in LA to promote his latest movie, Body Of Lies, while De La Hoya also took time out from preparations for his $US100 million ($145m) welterweight bout with Filipino Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on December 6.
Initially intended to be an introduction over lunch, the meeting quickly turned into a discussion about how to help Mundine establish himself in the US.
De La Hoya, who is the biggest boxing promoter in the US, offered to promote a fight for Mundine next year to boost the two-time super-middleweight world champion's profile and pave the way for a big-money bout in 2010.
"It's pretty much a done deal," Mundine told The Sun-Herald from Beverly Hills, where he was planning to do some sparring at the famous Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood owned by legendary trainer Freddie Roach before returning to Sydney.
"He just wants to get the right fights to get me exposure and he doesn't know whether it would be on a pay-per-view card that is televised internationally or getting me to headline a show on HBO - Boxing After Dark or something like that - but it sounds really promising.
"The meeting wasn't really meant to be about talking business or anything like that, we were just going to go there and whatever goes, goes, but they were really interested and knew a fair bit about my background. Oscar's obviously an avid boxing fan but I was surprised he knew so much. He jokingly said, 'Oh, you're The Man' and he knew all about my world title fights with [Sam] Soliman and [Mikkel] Kessler and [Antwun] Echols.
"He just sounded very excited that he's going to have an opportunity to work with me and that was very humbling on my behalf because he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters of all time and he wouldn't have shown the interest that he did if he didn't think I had the potential."
Mundine's trip to meet De La Hoya at short notice and his unabashed attempt to lure Danny Green out of retirement for a re-match by taking his next fight against 28-year-old Uruguayan middleweight Rafael Sosa Pintos (31 wins, two losses, 12 knock-outs) to Perth on November 12 prove he is prepared to chase the big fights.
During the meeting, Mundine told De La Hoya he would like to fight the winner of next weekend's Kelly Pavlik-Bernard Hopkins bout in Atlantic City.
"Oscar said, 'Those guys wouldn't fight you because you're not recognised, you haven't won any big fights over here, so what you need to do is get the exposure and then once you beat a few names you can start building a reputation'," Mundine said.
"It's hard because I'm at a stage where I am a dangerous fighter but I don't have the exposure or the runs on the board, so I'm prepared to do that, and it's really exciting on my behalf to know that someone like Oscar De La Hoya is supporting me.
"I also owe a lot to Rusty Crowe for believing in me and supporting me, because if it wasn't for him this probably wouldn't have happened."


J.S.P!!!!!!