By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Australia’s world-rated middleweight Shannan "Bulli Blaster" Taylor is visiting Angeles City on December 7 to meet with respected international referee and judge Bruce McTavish and to discuss the possibility of being trained by Rick Stehely for his February 11 battle with WBA super middleweight champion Anthony "The Man" Mundine.

The non-title fight is scheduled to take place on February 11 and Taylor is reportedly keen on getting Stehely who trained Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao when he won the WBC flyweight title with a spectacular eighth round knockout of Thai hero Chatchai Sasakul, to train him for the Mundine showdown..

McTavish told insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that should Taylor reach an agreement with Stehely, the American boxing man would spend three weeks in Australia along with McTavish to train Taylor.

Ranked No. 11 by the WBA, the 36 year old Taylor” stands 5’10” and has a record of 48-6-3 with 34 knockouts. In his last fight on October 31, Taylor scored a 12th round TKO victory over the Philippines Dondon Sultan in a Pan Asia Boxing Association middleweight title fight.

The 33 year old Mundine is the reigning WBA super middleweight champion  with a record of 34-3 with 23 knockouts. Mundine won the vacant title with a 9th round knockout of Sam Soliman on March 7, 2007 dropping him once in round two and three times in round nine. In a rematch last May 28, Mundine retained his title with a twelve round unanimous decision.

Mundine who won the vacant crown had earlier won and lost the title before regaining it last year.

He first won the super middleweight title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Antwun Echols on September 3, 2003 before grabbing the regular championship belt with a 5th round TKO over Japan’s Yoshinori Nishizawa on January 19, 2004, dropping the Japanese in the fourth and fifth rounds after being decked himself in the second.

Mundine lost the title by a split decision to Puerto Rico ’s Manny Siaca on May 4, 2004.

In his last bout on November 12 Mundine dominated Rafael Sosa Pintos of Uruguay in a ten round bout with the three judges scoring it 99-91, 100-91 and 100-88.

Mundine’s quickness was far too much for Pintos and the Aussie world champion was rarely troubled. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Pintos who had won 31 of his 33 previous fights offered little in offense through the early rounds although he did wobble Mundine in the sixth.

The Aussie world champion produced what the Herald referred to as his trademark combinations but the tough Uruguayan absorbed the blows and sometimes invited Mundine to have another go.

Mundine is currently also ranked No. 2 in the WBA middleweight rankings behind champion Felix Sturm of Germany and may well look to the Taylor fight as a good tune-up for a future title shot at Sturm.