Mundine's ready to dance - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Mundine's ready to dance

By Adrian Warren 02/09/2003 08:35:31 PM Comments (0)

American boxer Antwun Echols won't be kept waiting by Anthony Mundine's antics ahead of Wednesday night's super middleweight world title bout here.

Mundine weighed in right on the 76.2kg limit for the vacant World Boxing Association super middleweight title fight at the Sydney Entertainment Centre with Echols fractionally lighter at 75.8kg.

As the fighters traded insults and vowed to knock each other out, Echols' camp worked hard to make sure their fighter had any potential obstacles removed.

First, they warned their man wouldn't be kept waiting if Mundine made one of his typically theatrical entrances to the ring.

Mundine, the No.2 contender, will enter the ring after top-ranked Echols, but trainer Dan Birmingham said his major concern at today's reading of the rules was that his boxer not be kept waiting.

"We're not going to wait longer than five minutes (for Mundine). We will go back in the dressing room and will play a waiting game," Birmingham said.

After the weigh-in, Echols got his way over the brand of gloves to be used.

The Mundine team wanted to use Reyes gloves, but the Echols camp insisted on using the Grant brand as stipulated in their contract.

The two protagonists sniped at each other but the one thing they both agreed on was the fight would not go the 12 round distance.

Mundine stressed he was fully fit again after the four-week postponement caused by a viral infection and made light of the punching power which has earned Echols 26 knockouts in his overall record of 29 wins, four losses and one draw.

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

0 Comments about this article

Post a comment about this article

Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.

« All sports news