KEY POINTS:
Even before Monty Betham confirmed his switch to boxing on Friday morning, Anthony Mundine had issued a challenge.
It wasn't delivered with the bravado 'The Man' usually reels off but the challenge was there nonetheless.
"When I first came into boxing a lot of people wanted to fight me but I had just started the game," Mundine told the Herald on Sunday. "I'm not going to call out Monty to make a goose of myself.
"I say to him, 'Monty, have a two- or three-year plan, be successful and keep winning, and if the time is right and the fight is a viable fight and people want to see it, why not give it to the people?' A lot of friends fight in sport, especially in this game.
"I love Monty and I think he's capable of anything if he puts his mind to it. He's always joked about my dad and his dad fighting back in their day and maybe we can make history, too."
The promoters will want it, a curious public will want it and Mundine seemingly wants it, all this before Betham has even stepped into the ring as a professional.
It will be hard for the 28-year-old to play out his boxing career without comparisons to the controversial Mundine - he called fellow Australian boxer Danny Green a "bum" and a "no-hoper" before his own pugilistic career had even started - surfacing. Even at his stage-managed press conference on Friday, the spectre of Mundine hung over the Mt Eden gym.
The similarities are hard to ignore - both are former rugby league players and their fathers also fought in the 1970s.
For any fight between them to happen, Betham will need to trim down. He will start as a cruiserweight (90.8kg), but will need to drop significantly if he is ever to get in the ring with Mundine, who, as a middleweight, tips the scales at just 76.2kg.
But if Betham ever needed convincing he can make it as a boxer, he need only look at Mundine. The 31-year-old former Dragons five-eighths, who goes by the nicknames The Man, Choc, The Black Superman, Speedy Gonzales, The Squire of Sydney and The Redfern Ghost, has held one world title and attracts the sort of attention to which only the best can lay claim.
"Choc has shown us all that it's achievable if you put the hard work in," Betham says. "I respect him as an athlete and a boxer.
"He's someone I want to emulate and it would be great to fight him but you have to walk before you can run. I have to get busy and get up to speed fast. If Choc is still around and he's still the best, well, you have to fight the best."
Moments after Betham pulled off the gloves after his first sparring session as a professional, his mother embraced him, tears in her eyes.
"I was a bit worried about you, but not any more after seeing that," she said before embracing her "little boy".
Betham had the reputation as one of the most fearsome rugby league players and often topped the poll of opponents NRL players least wanted to get into a fight with. Getting into the ring is different and Betham's mother knows all about it considering her husband, Monty senior, is a former Commonwealth, Australasian and New Zealand champion.
Friday's announcement was clearly a significant one for someone who has often had a shaky relationship with the New Zealand sporting public, and for his family. It was also significant for his new manager, Mick Watson, even if the former Warriors chief played it down.
"This is not my show, not my journey," said Watson, who had an even more chequered history at the Warriors than Betham. "Monty and I have been friends for a long time and this is something we have discussed many times. I'm just here to do the commercial side of things, something I did for three years for Shane Cameron. Monty is in control."
Interest in Betham's journey will be high. He will be back in the public eye, something he escaped when he moved to Wakefield this year after seven seasons with the Warriors.
"I'm not worried about what people will think," he says. "I'm going into boxing for myself and to answer a few questions. I need to know once and for all [if I can make it]. I have to give it a chance and see if I can make it happen because I don't want in later years to regret the fact I didn't have a go."
Betham's first opponent is to be announced next month, but is not likely to be someone to present too many problems. .
He's often considered following his father and hasn't been short of people trying to persuade him to make the transition.
"The late Jerry Preston, who coached Jimmy Peau, said I could be Olympic champion if I wanted to be," Betham says.
"When I was in England I sparred a local pro for fun and his promoter told me I was in the wrong sport.
"When it looked like Wakefield would be relegated [from the UK Super League] he sat me down and said he wanted to sign me.
"I believe I probably over-achieved in rugby league. I'm just a donkey because ability-wise I don't have the attributes for a first-class player. With a lot of hard work, I made it happen. Now I'm going to take that into something I believe I'm good at.
"Who knows what can happen?"
If he ever does fight Anthony Mundine, it will be a fair bet he has made it as a boxer.
Monty Betham
* Betham, 28, made his Warriors debut in 1999 and went on to play 101 games for the club during an injury-plagued career. He also played eight tests for Kiwis (2001-03) and represented Samoa at the 2000 World Cup.
* Although he hasn't boxed before, he won the national men's open karate title as a 16-year-old and represented New Zealand at the world junior champs.
* Betham's father, Monty senior, was Commonwealth middleweight champion (1975), New Zealand light middleweight champion (1980), New Zealand light heavyweight champion (1981) and was also Australasian middleweight champion.
