Anthony Mundine DEFEATS Sergey Rabchenko by Controversial Split Decision
By Mark McKenna
Australian Anthony Mundine, 47-6, 27 KO’s kept his career alive Wednesday night scraping home with a tight and highly debatable twelve round nod over previously unbeaten Sergey Rabchenko, 25-1, 18 KO’s.
In an interesting juxtaposition of styles Mundine seemed to throw the more eye catching and crisper shots throughout.Despite giving away a decade in age his hand speed seemed undiminished at 39 and he caught the eye of the judges in the early rounds with better singular punches.
Rabchenko switched between Orthodox and southpaw but failed to land anything substantial in the early going ; despite a seemingly higher workrate most of his shots were landing on elbow and glove. After four rounds with open scoring in place Mundine was ahead 2 cards out of 3.
Round five onwards featured some solid exchanges with Rabchenko turning up the heat and starting to land more frequently. Mundine looking fatigued from round seven with the Belarusian targeting the body.Open scoring at round eight’s end had one card drawn with the other two for either fighter.
Round ten was a big one for Rabchenko as he landed a solid right uppercut that had Mundine on queer street and his work rate looked to be winning the championship rounds.
This writer had Rabchenko winning three of the last four rounds on pure activity with Mundine salvaging the 12th by a whisker. As the fight was up for grabs by the 8th round it seemed the last four rounds would have swayed the win Rabchenko’s way.
At any rate the scorecards were a reasonable 115-113 for Rabchenko, an equally feasible 115-113 for Mundine and a bizzarro world 116-112 for Mundine
Some non boxing fans watching alongside me cried ‘bullshit’ and I had similar thoughts – as usual I tempered my emotions with the obvious – that a fight scored ringside and watching on TV is often vastly different due to being able to see what does/doesn’t land. Mundine’s defensive skill did render much of Rabchenko’s work obsolete and he landed the more visible shots so he scrapes by this night by the most desperately narrow of margins.
Hopefully Mundine can parlay this win into an even bigger fight. Talk of Mayweather and Alvarez is probably overly optimistic right now with the probable route if any being a Canelo Alvarez bout; an already existent story line for that match exists. Mundine beat Alvarez brother Rigoberto in 2011 on points for the Interim WBA Junior Middleweight belt. This was a definite confidence builder for the Mundine camp after the Joshua Clottey loss last time out and nearing age forty ‘The Man’ is back in the title hunt.
In a spectacular performance on the undercard Junior Welterweight Lenny Zappavigna,33-2, 23 KO’s scored a TKO 7 over tough but outgunned Mexican Misael Castillo,26-4, 24 KO’s.
Sporting a horrific hair do that gave flashbacks back to Cuban Heavyweight Jorge Luis Gonzalez the Mexican visitor was dropped in round one and pummelled relentlessly through seven rounds when unanswered punches prompted the referee’s intervention. Now unbeaten in his last 8 bouts Zappavigna showed excellent speed , punch variety and patience and has improved in every area since his last reversal (TKO5 Ameth Diaz in 2011)
Hatton promoted Heavyweight Lucas Browne, 22-0, 19 KO’s scored a corner retirement win over New Zealand based American southpaw Chauncy Welliver,55-9-2, 22 KO’s who opted out after five rounds of action with a rapidly closing eye. Despite looking like he trains exclusively in a pastry factory Welliver is usually a durable customer but now has lost inside schedule two fights in a row.
Local Super Featherweight Kye MacKenzie improved to 13-0, 11 KO’s scored his most significant win to date with a TKO 10 over Clive Atwell.
Atwell had lost earlier in the year to Jhonny Gonzalez in a WBC Featherweight title bout via the technical route. He was on the receiving end of one way traffic which ended with a wide left hook which prompted a stoppage in round ten. Despite protest Atwell was well behind on the scorecards and looked unlikely to salvage victory.
All Results:
140lb: Leonardo Zappavigna KO 7 Misael Castillo
135lb: Kye MacKenzie KO 10 Clive Atwell
154lb: Anthony Mundine W 12 Sergey Rabchenko
Heavy: Lucas Browne KO 5 Chauncy Welliver
154 lb: Anthony Buttigieg W6 Joel Camilleri
Heavy: Cory Paterson KO 1 Michael Lua Tama
200lb: Kane Watts KO 4 Mick King
200lb: Dylan Goddard W4 Isileli Fa