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Part TWO
BOB ; Kurukitoga… yeah.
ME ; He didn’t last long.
BOB ; Yeah I knocked him out with my first solid punch, I had landed some blows but they were light and just feeling him out, just glancing shots.
ME where did you hit him ?
BOB ; just near the eye I think.
ME ; You were born in Croatia, Boxrec says it was in Dubrovnik.
BOB ; no it was in a place called Spisic Bukovica. Yeah but a lot of times I see I was born in Dubrovnik apparently.
ME ; You also fought Joe Bugner, “Aussie Joe” and Justin Fortune and Kali Meehan, Shane Cameron, Frans Botha.
BOB ; Yep. Kali Meehan, fast, very strong, good fighter and tough. Joe Bugner, we were going to fight a rematch, it was all signed ready to go, but then they said no so Joe and me didn’t happen, it would have been a big fight for me so I fought Kali and at the time I was having a bad emotional time with some family issues and I was finding life pretty hard trying to deal with all the pressures. So we had the Kali fight and I thought the fight may help me to sort some things out and help me to focus,… didn’t work. Actually it all worked in reverse you know, funnily enough like the first three or four rounds I was boxing Kali’s ears off, he couldn’t land a punch on me. His nose was bleeding, he was cut and he was a mess, and ahh, I got tired in the fourth round because I couldn’t focus and then I tried to take a little rest and with Kali, that’s a BIG mistake. He then saw this and unleashed some big shots and he caught me.
ME ; I suppose you don’t really regret not going over there to fight under Don King
BOB ; Oh, no, no way I never had no intention of doing that.
ME ; Who were your heroes or biggest influences that got you wanting to become a fighter ?
BOB ; Oh when I was a kid down in a little place called Merulan, our school was just down the road from our house so I came home this day for lunch and my dad was on nightshift when I came home and he is sitting there by himself in front of the tv and Ali was fighting Leon Spinks. It was the first time I had ever seen boxing and I thought,… what is this ?, and I was in awe of it you know !!!... I loved it, these two guys fighting. I already played sports, footy, cricket, every sport you could think of and I got into martial arts at 13 years of age and I really enjoyed martial arts. So anyway when I was 20 I was at my mate’s place watching Mike Tyson fight Trevor Berbick and even before the fight started, there was about ten of my mates sitting there waiting and I told them that one day I would become the Australian heavyweight champion and they laughed at me saying, “you don’t even box, how can you say that ? what are you drunk or something ?”, I said nahh you wait and see guys, wait and see, I had my first fight three months later and we went from there. I won that first fight and my trainer said right there, “one day you will become Australian champion”, and I believed it, had no doubt it would happen.
ME ; And you did it,… three times.
BOB ; Yeah I did it.
ME ; It’s been a very prestigious title, some very great names there, I mean, Sam Langford mate they don’t come much bigger than that, Sam McVey, Les Darcy, Dave Smith, Ambrose Palmer and Dave Sands, mate you are in some great company there, very impressive
ME ; What was your proudest moment ? Your first title ?
BOB ; Yeah definitely the first Australian title, I get ribbed a lot from mates about the photo I had with Mike Tyson plastered all over the internet but hell, why not, I always tell them that if it was you, you would have done the same thing too, ha.
ME ; If we go back past the time of Ali, do you have any favourites among the old timers ?
BOB ; Pep was amazing he wins like his first 60 odd fights, moves up a weight, loses and then goes undefeated for more than 70 fights, wow !! incredible.
ME ; Yep he was really something to behold, I think he is the best pure boxer I have ever seen period, great great fighter, great lateral movement.
BOB ; Yeah I think so, just an incredible boxer. Well I think it’s time for the class mate.
ME ; yeah Bob that wraps it up nicely all there is left to do is a couple of photos mate, thank you very much for your time BOB, appreciate it very much.
BOB ; yeah it was a pleasure.
Bob Mirovic - Part TWO
ME : OK Bob, let’s go back to your first ever fight, against Sam…..BOB ; Kurukitoga… yeah.
ME ; He didn’t last long.
BOB ; Yeah I knocked him out with my first solid punch, I had landed some blows but they were light and just feeling him out, just glancing shots.
ME where did you hit him ?
BOB ; just near the eye I think.
ME ; You were born in Croatia, Boxrec says it was in Dubrovnik.
BOB ; no it was in a place called Spisic Bukovica. Yeah but a lot of times I see I was born in Dubrovnik apparently.
ME ; You also fought Joe Bugner, “Aussie Joe” and Justin Fortune and Kali Meehan, Shane Cameron, Frans Botha.
BOB ; Yep. Kali Meehan, fast, very strong, good fighter and tough. Joe Bugner, we were going to fight a rematch, it was all signed ready to go, but then they said no so Joe and me didn’t happen, it would have been a big fight for me so I fought Kali and at the time I was having a bad emotional time with some family issues and I was finding life pretty hard trying to deal with all the pressures. So we had the Kali fight and I thought the fight may help me to sort some things out and help me to focus,… didn’t work. Actually it all worked in reverse you know, funnily enough like the first three or four rounds I was boxing Kali’s ears off, he couldn’t land a punch on me. His nose was bleeding, he was cut and he was a mess, and ahh, I got tired in the fourth round because I couldn’t focus and then I tried to take a little rest and with Kali, that’s a BIG mistake. He then saw this and unleashed some big shots and he caught me.
ME ; I suppose you don’t really regret not going over there to fight under Don King
BOB ; Oh, no, no way I never had no intention of doing that.
ME ; Who were your heroes or biggest influences that got you wanting to become a fighter ?
BOB ; Oh when I was a kid down in a little place called Merulan, our school was just down the road from our house so I came home this day for lunch and my dad was on nightshift when I came home and he is sitting there by himself in front of the tv and Ali was fighting Leon Spinks. It was the first time I had ever seen boxing and I thought,… what is this ?, and I was in awe of it you know !!!... I loved it, these two guys fighting. I already played sports, footy, cricket, every sport you could think of and I got into martial arts at 13 years of age and I really enjoyed martial arts. So anyway when I was 20 I was at my mate’s place watching Mike Tyson fight Trevor Berbick and even before the fight started, there was about ten of my mates sitting there waiting and I told them that one day I would become the Australian heavyweight champion and they laughed at me saying, “you don’t even box, how can you say that ? what are you drunk or something ?”, I said nahh you wait and see guys, wait and see, I had my first fight three months later and we went from there. I won that first fight and my trainer said right there, “one day you will become Australian champion”, and I believed it, had no doubt it would happen.
ME ; And you did it,… three times.
BOB ; Yeah I did it.
ME ; It’s been a very prestigious title, some very great names there, I mean, Sam Langford mate they don’t come much bigger than that, Sam McVey, Les Darcy, Dave Smith, Ambrose Palmer and Dave Sands, mate you are in some great company there, very impressive
ME ; What was your proudest moment ? Your first title ?
BOB ; Yeah definitely the first Australian title, I get ribbed a lot from mates about the photo I had with Mike Tyson plastered all over the internet but hell, why not, I always tell them that if it was you, you would have done the same thing too, ha.
ME ; If we go back past the time of Ali, do you have any favourites among the old timers ?
BOB ; Pep was amazing he wins like his first 60 odd fights, moves up a weight, loses and then goes undefeated for more than 70 fights, wow !! incredible.
ME ; Yep he was really something to behold, I think he is the best pure boxer I have ever seen period, great great fighter, great lateral movement.
BOB ; Yeah I think so, just an incredible boxer. Well I think it’s time for the class mate.
ME ; yeah Bob that wraps it up nicely all there is left to do is a couple of photos mate, thank you very much for your time BOB, appreciate it very much.
BOB ; yeah it was a pleasure.
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