By Mark Vester
During his weigh-in for the trilogy bout with Sam Soliman in Melbourne, WBA "regular" super middleweight champ Anthony Mundine announced that he was planning to vacate the title and drop the down to middleweight after he beats Soliman. Mundine said the only way he will stay at 168 is if he lands a fight with undisputed champion Joe Calzaghe. The mandatory to his title is Mikkel Kessler, who presviously beat him, but Mundine says the public is not interested in watching him fight Kessler again.
"I take great pride in winning and defending the world title but I'm positive that I can win another one and win many more," Mundine said to the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's a risk, but I really believe in my ability and my potential, and I feel that I can be a monster at middleweight. During this week, I've got down as low as 163 pounds, which is about 73.8 kg, so I just have to drop another kilo - and I haven't dieted, so I know that by dieting right, being disciplined and drinking plenty of water, I will sh*t it in."
Mundine is not happy that the WBA is forcing his hand to fight Kessler.
"It's a business, it's all about making money and making the right fights, so I want to fight Calzaghe. I don't want to fight Kessler," Mundine said. "But the WBA has sort of made Kessler the mandatory [challenger] and my team and I don't feel that Kessler is a viable option at this point because of the money factor - plus he is coming off the loss to Calzaghe. We don't see that as being very positive for me, so we're probably going to relinquish and look for opportunities in middleweight.
"I want the best. I would love to fight Kelly Pavlik, I would love to fight Joe Calzaghe and in middleweight I want to fight Winky Wright and people like that."
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