Boxing: Mundine eyes big league

SYDNEY - Anthony Mundine has the potential to take his boxing career to greater heights, says Gerrard Zohs, the New Zealand super middleweight knocked out in the former rugby league star's debut fight.

Mundine dominated the much-hyped event at the Sydney Entertainment Centre against a disappointing Zohs, who failed to provide the predicted opposition to the "The Man" despite a background of 20 professional fights.

The referee called the fight off two minutes and six seconds into the fourth round, when the 30-year-old Aucklander was felled by a left hook followed by a flurry of Mundine punches.

Zohs was also knocked down in the opening round and spent much of the fight protecting his head against the far crisper and more athletic Mundine.

While 25-year-old Mundine looked impressive, it became clear early on that he was not going to be tested. His defence looked a little shaky when Zohs sneaked some left hands over the top of low gloves when he occasionally threw punches.

It mattered little to the famously outspoken Mundine, who was happy with his debut in front of a surprisingly large crowd of 7500.

"I promised the people I would put on a show and I gave them a show so I'm satisfied with that," Mundine said.

"My ultimate goal is to be the world champion. This is no joke, I really want to make this happen and let everyone know that I can box and that I'm here for the real deal. Hopefully, I showed a couple of people up tonight.

"Obviously I'm going to learn with experience. I have to learn to control my punches a bit better - not try to go for the knockout every punch. I probably wasted a bit of energy doing that."

Zohs said he had faced harder punchers than Mundine.

"But he has a good volley of shots. He gets it on and keeps on hitting you.

"There are a lot of good super middleweights out there and these days it's how you're handled. If he's handled well then, yeah, he could go places."

Zohs was a little miffed when the referee called the fight off after he dropped to one knee.

"If he had let it go on I would have plodded on with no worries."

What made him more angry was his long wait in the ring pre-fight before Mundine finally appeared with his predictably flashy and long-winded entrance which had Zohs comparing him to flamboyant English boxer Prince Naseem Hamed.

"I can see how Naseem's won all those fights. With all that hype before the fight you lose it a bit," Zohs said.

The Kiwi's record drops to 10 wins, 10 losses and one draw.

Mundine said his father Tony, a former No 1 challenger for the world middleweight title, was happy with his performance. A second opponent had yet to be decided.

Among the sports and entertainment stars in the crowd were former league team-mates from St George Illawarra, the club Mundine controversially walked out on this year to pursue boxing. It was hard to say if the players wanted Mundine to win or lose.

Earlier, another former Mundine league team-mate, Solomon Haumono, provided a farcical moment in his professional boxing debut when he drove Queensland heavyweight Ken Fuller across the ring in a league-style tackle.

It took officials 15 minutes to fix the ropes that took the weight of the two big men.

Haumono kept his composure and went on to win via a knockout in the second round.

- NZPA