Clottey makes minced meat of Mundine

Anthony Mundine’s career is in great doubt following the toughest fight of his 25-bout career in Newcastle on Monday night.

The Man was floored five times by a dominant Joshua Clottey during a one-sided fight but showed enormous courage to get back on his feet and go the distance. Mundine refused to speculate on his future immediately after the fight. “I don’t want to think about that now,” he said.

“I want to take some time off and relax. Who knows?”

Mundine’s first knockdown came in the third round when he was caught with a straight right. He went down twice in round six and again in round eight and round 10 but got back up on each occasion to see out the fight.

“I got caught early and didn’t recover the way I wanted to,” Mundine said. “My defence wasn’t tight enough but I finished the fight on my feet.”

Clottey stepped into the ring having suffered just four defeats in his 37 bout career. All four were to world champions - Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Maragarilo and Carlos Baldomir.

And while he had fought only twice since he went the distance with Pacquiao in 2010, there was no sign of any rustiness.

Right from the opening bell, Clottey was the aggressor and Mundine had no answer to the Ghanaian’s rock solid defence.

Mundine’s usual crisp jab rarely found its mark and he was scurrying for cover as Clottey came at him with big lefts to the body and over-head rights.which found their mark. Mundine, on the other hand, rarely pierced his opponents defence. It wasn’t until the later rounds that Mundine, in an all or nothing bid for a knockout, even troubled Clottey.

It’s was no surprise Clottey goes by the nickname “The Hitter”. Right from the outset, his punches had far more venom.

Not surprising, Clottey was a unanimous point’s winner with the three judges calling the fight 116-108, 115-109 and 117-108.

In the main supporting bout last night, former Australian Commonwealth games gold medallist Brad “Hollywood” Pitt suffered his first professional defeat – a brutal fourth round knockout at the hands of Team Mundine prodigy Dave Aloua.

Aloua floored Pitt with a sickening blow to the head but the referee surprisingly allowed the fight to continue after Pitt struggled to his feet. Seconds later, it was all over.