Anthony Mundine Eyes Miguel Cotto After Stopping Waters

By Mark Vester

At the Entertainment Centre in New South Wales, Australia, Anthony Mundine (40-3, 24KOs) stopped Ryan Waters (20-3-2, 12KOs) in the tenth round of a WBA junior middleweight eliminator. Waters took the fight to Mundine in the early rounds, but couldn't withstand the power of Mundine's punches in the later round. Mundine began to batter him in the ninth round and finished him off in the first minute of the tenth.

It was Mundine's first knockout win since December 2007, when he was a super middleweight. Mundine has been dropping down in weight since he vacated his WBA 168-pound title a few years ago.

"I told ya, I'm only going to get stronger,'' Mundine said to AAP. "I'm only going to get stronger by the will of God ... I worked hard for this fight and I got my weight down and I felt strong tonight."

Mundine wants his shot at Miguel Cotto's WBA title, but that won't be his next fight. Mundine plans to return in December against former NRL player Garth Wood, who won the Australian version of the reality TV series The Contender. After Wood, Mundine will try to make the fight with Cotto.

"There's a lot of fighters in Australia that want to fight me, Garth's earned his shot, ... but after Garth Woods I want to test the waters with the best, that's what I'm trying to do,'' Mundine said.