Mundine & BOXA taking boxing for yet another ride in NZ.

Clearly the Kiwi's can see through the smoke & mirrors too:


Sonny Bill sideshow just trivialises boxing

by James Graham - Bay of Plenty Times - 4th June 2011


Secretly, scores of rugby internationals must be hoping Sonny Bill Williams gets some of that cockiness knocked out of him in Henderson this weekend.

He's making them all look like lazy whining fools who can forget about trudging out that old chestnut about the season being too long and gruelling ever again.

SBW's got so much energy and spare time on his gifted hands he's bored with just building up for the Rugby World Cup, or even that tiny event known as the Super Rugby final.

No, for the second time this footy season he gets into the boxing ring tomorrow night (June 5), this time against an unknown 43-year-old flabby gospel singer named Alipate Liava'a.

This content is protected

Sure, I'm contributing here by devoting this space to the endless debate, but it's more a plea to stop encouraging him.

To do so, denigrates the art of boxing and it trivialises the hard work and sacrifices of top level rugby players.

SBW says boxing complements the rugby - that's only because he's only ever got into the ring with bouncers and has-beens who can't hurt him.

This content is protected

This content is protected

World champion Anthony Mundine is on the same card in west Auckland but you wouldn't know it by all the commotion around SBW.

Mundine's headline 10-rounder against American Xavier Toliver is considered a major step in his bid to become a three-weight division world champ.

But disturbingly, all the promotion centres around Mundine's pupil squaring up against a guy who only started boxing at 40 - and has lost his last seven fights.

This content is protected

After all, as players and managers love to tell us, it's only a short career span so why not milk it for all it's worth.

No, if there is any finger-pointing it has to be directed at the limp-wristed NZRU for allowing this circus act in a Rugby World Cup year.

Even SBW was reportedly surprised by the boxing clause being allowed to stay in his contract.

Maybe he does have a career in the ring after rugby, but do us all a favour and wait until then - you're still only 25.

 

Even Rebecca Wilson has a sniff of the stench:



It's a blight on boxing

by Rebecca Wilson - The Daily Telegraph - June 4th 2011


THE recent death of Lionel Rose reminded us just how much boxing meant to Australians in the 1960s and 1970s. This country produced some of the best fighters in the world - athletes who became part of Aussie folklore.

Rose stood tallest among them, met by thousands of screaming fans at Melbourne airport after his impossible victory over Fighting Harada in Japan back in 1968.

Rose's climb to the top was a classic boxing tale. A young indigenous kid from the Victorian bush who possessed the gifts of fast hands and incredible endurance, he went on to became one of the nation's favourite sons.

What remains of his sport in Australia is humiliating for those who built its proud traditions. Boxing is but a shadow of its former self, destroyed by greed, dimwits and men who have placed their own egos above its strict disciplines and work ethic.

This content is protected

This content is protected

Mundine is the same man who told us repeatedly that he was the next Muhammad Ali. Surrounded by yes men and sycophants, Mundine has allowed his supreme fitness and talent to be swallowed up by his and his mates' desire for fame and fortune.

The so-called Man has promised much and delivered little. His boxing career started well enough, but he has fought lowly opponents at the expense of his and his sport's reputation.

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

Mundine is so far refusing to fight Australia's newest world champion, Daniel Geale, and is backing off a re-match with Garth Wood.

It is his fear of failure and the bad advice he receives from those around him that means Mundine finds blokes like Toliver just to keep his name in the headlines.

The continuing refusal by his camp to fight legitimate opponents costs him and his sport dearly. A Geale-Mundine bout would attract around 45,000 subscribers. His fights against nobodies average around 7000.

Choc has dragged a few along for the ride, too. Sonny Bill Williams is obviously easily led. How else could you explain why the world's biggest football talent would want to fight anybody while he is trying to win a World Cup for his country?

Even though he allegedly told his manager Khoder Nasser (also Mundine's manager) to find him big- name heavyweight opponents in the US, Williams will turn out against a local bloke who looks like he hasn't done a lap of the oval for 10 years.

Instead of concentrating on winning a Super XV title for the Canterbury Crusaders, Williams will use his team's bye weekend to fight on the Mundine undercard.

This content is protected

Boxing needs more Daniel Geales and fewer of this lot. The sport's already narrow audience base diminishes when personalities such as Mundine and Williams trash its legitimacy.

The New Zealand Rugby Union must stop Williams' folly and tell him he can only play rugby. Mundine should sack Nasser and only listen to his father, Tony, for advice.

This content is protected

The sport in Australia and New Zealand is shambolic, a freak show with little resemblance to the showcase it was for prodigiously talented young men from working-class roots.

This weekend in New Zealand, its reputation will take another savage blow. Kiwi union fans will have their fingers crossed that Williams comes through it unscathed.

Most Australians will not even read the result of Mundine's scrap. His big talk has alienated so many that even those who previously admired him have given up on The Man and his dubious inner sanctum.