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February 27 - 2014
Boxing: ‘The Man’ Steps Up, Again Anthony ‘The Man’ Mundine is certainly going all-out in his late-career bid to enhance his legacy, securing a bout with former IBF welterweight world champion Joshua Clottey. With the bout scheduled for April 2 in Newcastle, New South Wales, it will be Mundine’s third fight in less than five months, and second against a big-name opponent, after defeating certain Hall of Famer ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley in November, albeit in farcical circumstances. Clottey has wins over world champions like Zab Judah and Diego Corrales on his record and has only lost to the absolute best, with his four defeats coming at the hands of Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and Carlos Manuel Baldomir. Clottey is a sound defensive, efficient fighter. The type of boxer who can pressure Mundine, and force him to ‘fight’ his way out of tight situations. The only question on Clottey, however, is his activity. The Ghanaian has fought only one time in three years, and that win — in a bout in New York last September — was over a pretty pedestrian fighter, Dashon Johnson, who has only won 15 of his 29 fights. “He’s got a very tight defence and tries to come back if you put a couple of good ones on him,” Mundine said to AAP. “The reason why we’ve got Clottey is because of his name, his credibility in the business and the man has been in some massive fights and so he’s known to the boxing punters.” Clottey is without question one of the best-
credentialed opponents of Mundine’s career, but it is hard to read much into that after the dismal performance Mundine’s most decorated opponent, Shane Mosley, put on. Mundine’s persistence in dropping Floyd Mayweather’s name is really a moot point. The 36-year-old
Mayweather, who is the highest paid athlete in the world after clearing $90 million last year, would never consider a fight with Mundine, who is largely unknown in the US. Mundine needs to face reality. First, he will face Clottey.
Pullin Our Leg: You can’t turn on the television, pick up a paper or log onto social media without being spruiked on the gold medal chances of Alex ‘Stumpy’ Pullin, a two-time snowboarding world champion reportedly destined for Olympic glory. However, after days of promotion, if you blinked, you missed Pullin’s Winter Games campaign in Sochi, as the 26-year-old, Benalla-born athlete failed to make the semi-finals of the men’s snowboard cross event. Losing his footing in the quarter-final and falling over, it was a tough loss for Pullin to swallow, who now faces a tough wait until the next games in 2018. “I’m bummed that it didn’t go my way and I couldn’t give people a better show,” he said. Frenchman Pierre Vaultier would eventually go onto claim gold in a pulsating final. LA Pitcher Wants to Dodge Down Under: The Major League Baseball season opening in Sydney, Australia with two games between the famed Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks on March 22 and 23 seems like a pretty big deal. Just, uh, don’t tell that to Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke, who recently signed a six-year $147 million contract with the club. “I would say there is absolutely zero excitement for it [the trip to Australia,” Greinke told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “There just isn’t any excitement to it. I can’t think of one reason to be excited for it.” Talk about a buzzkill. You can bet there’ll be a few fans in Sydney hoping Greinke gets hit out of the park. Sharks in Hot Water: The NRL has issued a ‘please explain’ the Cronulla Sharks after suspended coach Shane Flanagan turned up to a trial match at Shark Park last week, in defiance of the 12-month ban he has received from the league as punishment for his role in the team’s ‘governance issues’ two seasons ago. “We have asked the Sharks to give us an explanation and we are waiting for that explanation,” NRL boss Dave Smith said. “We have been very clear about Shane’s position as we go through this process. For the act, Flanagan—and perhaps the club—could face further sanctions. For the record, the Sharks lost the trial match to the West Tigers, 26-22.
AFL: Power Target Blues’ Gibbs The Port Adelaide Power, buoyed from a dramatic one-year turnaround in which they rose from the doldrums to snare a final victory over the Collingwood Magpies, have declared they will target the South Australian-born Bryce Gibbs this offseason. “We will do everything we can at list management to make sure we have the opportunity to get the very best squad together,” Port Adelaide’s coaching director Shaun Hart told Adelaide’s The Advertiser newpaper.“And if that included Bryce Gibbs, we’d certainly make sure we did our work there.” It sends a bold message to the Carlton Blues, who selected the talented utility with the No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft. While the Blues will be confident of keeping their man, the stakes this offseason are higher than ever since the advent of free agency—unlike in 2010, the season where Gary Ablett crossed to the Gold Coast Suns, clubs who lose players will not be compensated. Essentially, should Port Adelaide outbid the Blues, Gibbs would be lost for zilch. As the Blues broke the bank to secure Dale Thomas, who coach Mick Malthouse described as “like a son,” the Princes Park-based team pushed themselves ever closer to the salary cap mark. While Gibbs has been a solid player at Carlton, an undisputed ‘stat magnet’ in some games, he hasn’t exactly lived up the promise of a No. 1 pick. The 24-year-old will be looking for his first All-Australian season in 2014.
Best buys Day Reigns in the Desert: Make no mistake about it; Jason Day is a habitual winner. A mere couple of months after snaring individual honours at the World Cup of Golf, the 26-year-old Aussie outduelled the best the PGA Tour had to offer—minus Tiger, Phil and Scotty—to win the $1.53 million cheque awarded to the winner of the WGC Match-Play Championship in Dove Mountain, Arizona. The final, however, was won the hard way. Pushed to 23 holes by 23-year-old Frenchman Victor Dubuisson, who was looking for his country’s first PGA Tour title, Day prevailed in an after-dusk showdown that produced some memorable shotmaking. ‘‘Hopefully from here on, as long as I keep working hard and I want it as much as this, the floodgates will open and I’ll win a lot more,” said Day. With the victory, he vaults from World No. 11 to World No. 4.
Golf: Worldwide Webb Wins on Home Turf Unfortunately for Michael Clarke and the Baggy Green, it had to end sometime. After Australia’s memorable run this summer, reeling off all five Ashes Tests before claiming the first Test against South Africa, it seemed the Darren Lehmann-coached side had forgotten how to lose. But unfortunately Dale Steyn, whose presence as a paceman in the series had been lost in all the hoopla surrounding Mitchell Johnson, had not forgotten how to bowl. In one terrifying second-innings spell in the second Test at Port Elizabeth, Steyn took four souldestroying wickets, including that of Australia’s captain Michael Clarke for one run. From there,
Sell of approval
it was easy pickings. Steyn removed Steve Smith for a duck, Brad Haddin for one and Ryan Harris for six. The foundations of Australia’s promising 126-run opening partnership between Chris Rogers and David Warner were squandered, as Australia was all out for 216 — 231 runs of the total they needed to win the Test and clinch the series. Australia, for the first time in a long time, now need to regroup. The third and deciding Test will be held on March 1 in Cape Town. While Michael Clarke’s mediocre form at the crease was masked by the brilliance of his squad during the Ashes series, fingers were quickly pointed at him after
another failure with the bat. “There are some tough times and it makes you enjoy the good times,” Clarke said. “Right now you’re right, it is 11 innings since I’ve scored more than 25. I’m due.” Clarke, however, remained positive — an attitude he’d certainly be preaching in the dressing room. “This is a wonderful opportunity for this Australian team to see where we sit at the moment against the number one team,” he said. “It’s a great challenge and I can guarantee we’ll be up for it [the decider], that’s for sure.” In what has been an image-altering few months for this Australian cricket team, let’s hope they can show their very best once more.
Like Brother, Like Sister: Makybe Diva’s halfbrother, a $1.2 million purchase at 2012’s Easter Yearling Sales in Sydney, did his sister proud in the first race at Kilmore last Sunday. Starting an even-money favourite in the Mitchell Shire Maiden, run over 1,600 metres, Rodway saluted in front of Host Nation and Magdalena’s Rose to secure his first win in three career starts. Trained by Peter Moody, who steered Black Caviar to transcendent stardom, Rodway shares the same mother, Tugela, with Makybe Diva. His father, the dual-hemisphere conquering Street Cry, who has sired the Melbourne Cup-winning Shocking and Caulfield Guineaswinning Whobegotyou, is also closely related to Makybe Diva. The racing industry will watch closely to see if Rodway can live up to the potential his pedigree promises. Ali’s Gloverly Love: The gloves Muhammad Ali wore to beat Sonny Liston in 1964, when the then 22-year-old known as Cassius Clay shocked the world by beating the then 34-year-old Liston, who was coming off back to back one-round knockouts over Floyd Patterson, are up for sale. The gloves were sold two years ago and went for $385,848 paid to the estate of Angelo Dundee, Ali’s charismatic former trainer. This time, they are likely to fetch far more. Considering the gloves Ali used to beat Floyd Patterson have since sold for $1.1 million, a less significant fight by almost any measure, a figure of $500,000 is somewhat of a conservative estimate. For the record, that exceeds the price of the gloves if they were weighted in gold.