He appears to me to be an also-ran amongst also-rans during the Monzon era but he was around after that and still didn’t quite scratch the upper echelon. But he also seems an enigma. Well-regarded in his time, yet he was kind of off in a box by himself fighting in Australia so not really in the mainstream picture. How do you rate him? What were his strengths and shortcomings? And is there a bit of skepticism in that he fought mostly at home and had that advantage plus the possible jet lag opponents faced? (Sometimes a guy has enough money behind him to lure opponents halfway around the globe or across an ocean on shorter notice so the version the hometown guy beats is a bit sluggish … went for the money and didn’t have resources to spend a couple of weeks acclimating … a lot of UK fighters have built records on names and semi-names who walked into this trap, for instance). I gather he was something of a national hero in Australia, but was he all that? Would he have been top of class if Monzon hadn’t been around, or still a bridesmaid?
He was a good standup boxer with a big right hand, but his punch resistance chronically let him down throughout his career. Despite that, he managed to be a contender from MW through CW, and even won the Aussie HW title.
When I went headlong into boxing in '73, Mundine was on every publication's keyboard. I recall Ring Magazine with an article that read, "Continental experts see Mundine replacing Monzon". And Ring was a big Mundine cheerleader. As for me, I was a big Bennie Briscoe fan, so when these two locked horns everyone was on pins and needles. But after Bennie took out Tony in 5, it really let the air out of the tires in regards to the Aussie. Now the headlines were reading, "Glass jaw exposed" and things of that nature. But Tony had some brilliant middleweight wins over Emile Griffith, Denny Moyer, Juarez DeLima, Bunny Sterling and Antonio Aguilar before moving up to light heavy. True, the jaw was letting him down here and there but he still held some decent wins there over Bunny Johnson, Steve Aczel and two late career wins over Hocine Tafer and Mustafa Wassaja. All in all, Tony could box and believe me, he could hit, but the jaw was his achilles heel.
Doesn't work for Australia, but for the UK? Screw it, don't adapt to the time and just demand the fight be at lunchtime instead of at night. Problem solved.
