Boxing: Mundine must be ready for a durable opponent

By PETER JESSUP

Anthony Mundine better have hard fists. He'll need them - he's about to find out what it's like to hit a fence post strainer.

That's what Sean Sullivan's approach to boxing has been through a career that includes 64 fights over 15 years.

He's not going to change his style at the ASB Stadium tonight when he gets the biggest promotion of his career.

Sullivan will take the fight to the dancing Mundine, force his way forward and try to pin the faster man to the corners so he can deliver.

He'll try to take away the power in Mundine's jab by constant advance, put his face and shoulders right in front of his opponent and take the fight down to a toe-to-toe slug-fest.

That's his best chance, because Mundine will have the advantage in terms of fist and foot speed, he'll be elusive, he'll always be looking to deliver the flurry of blows that might get him a knockout.

Sullivan has been hit by some of Australasia's best fighters and is rarely sat down. His record is 54-10 and the losses all by points. He has taken a large number of his contests into later rounds. That's where his chances lie tonight.

Mundine will know to expect exactly that from the five-title New Zealander.

His father, Tony, with more experience, will have warned Anthony that Sullivan will use his superior ring craft to try to cut him off, then back him up to be hit.

The pundits all agree that Mundine is raging favourite and the TAB odds yesterday of $1.13 for Mundine, $5 for Sullivan reflected that.

But the TAB odds for a Mundine knockout were $1.60, reflecting the lack of regard for his punching power.

Best measure between the pair is the contest each has had with Australian world-ranked middleweight Sam Solimon, Sullivan losing a 12-rounder by unanimous points decision to Solimon and Mundine winning a split decision over him, both fights in the last 12 months.

Sullivan, always a fitness fanatic, has extended his preparation this time to include sports psychology and hypnosis to help him focus and evade the Mundine hype, specialised weights work and yoga.

In his corner will be Alex Sua, who beat Tony Mundine at Carlaw Park in the 80s, Ricky Thornberry who lost an eleventh-round decision to Mundine last November, four-time Olympian Maselino Masoe, who has been helping him with hand-speed work, and author Alan Duff.

Plus the 4000-odd in the crowd, most of whom will vocally back the local champ, most doubtless as keen as any crowd anywhere to see Mundine put in his place.

It's not likely to happen.