By Mark Vester
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, talks are still ongoing for a potential rematch between WBA super middleweight champion Anthony Mundine and Aussie-rival Danny Green. The paper caught an exclusive photo of Mundine's manager, Khoder Nasser, and the recently retired Green, walking and talking on the street.
Their first bout in 2006 was the biggest and richest fight in Australian boxing history. Mundine won an easy unanimous decision that night, but the rematch began to build after Green moved up to light heavyweight and stopped Otis Griffin and then won a lopsided decision over Stipe Drews to capture the WBA light heavyweight title.
Just as it appeared that Mundine was ready to move to light heavyweight to make the rematch, Green announced his retirement and vacated his title. The retirement announcement cost Mundine millions of dollars.
Nasser has tried to get Green back in the ring with an offer of $4 million dollars and will probably raise the number to $5 million. He feels that eventually the money will be too much to walk away from and Green will put retirement on hold to make the fight.
"His favourite line to me is, 'I'm retired'. My favourite line to him is, 'A man is able to change his mind from time to time'," Nasser said. "I'm going to his retirement lunch in Perth this month, so I will even be enticing him there, so to speak. It was the biggest fight in Australian history, it was a great fight. The public know it will be very competitive if it happens again. From my position, I have to try everything I can to make it happen."
"The best way I could explain it is to say Green-Mundine will always be the biggest fight in Australian history," he said. "[Fight] one is there at the moment, the idea is to get the rematch to the table."
Green claimed to The Sun-Herald that his meeting with Nasser took place "by chance."
"I was admiring the architecture of the State Parliament building when I bumped into Khoder," Green said. "He asked if I wanted to go for a walk with him. I don't know ... he might've been trialling me as a personal trainer because we ended up doing four or five laps round the park."
If the rematch with Green is not made, Mundine has been talking about moving down in weight to middleweight. He returns on May 28 in a trilogy bout with Sam Soliman in Melbourne.
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