Mundine's burning regret over infamous fight

It's the fight Anthony Mundine wishes he could have back.

His tenth round KO defeat to IBF Super-Middleweight champion Sven Ottke in 2001 was a source of celebration for Mundine haters back home.

Such was the jubilation, pub patrons were dancing on the tables at the sight of Mundine out cold on his back, despite the fact their countryman was fighting for a world title in just his 11th professional fight.

He was a massive underdog who backed himself to match it with the world champion on the other side of the world. It doesn't get more Australian than that. He should have been a national hero. Instead it was the exact opposite. Such was his brash nature, mainstream Australia had already turned their back on him, and in the lead up to the December fight with Ottke that year it was clear the world was fed up with 'The Man's' mouth as well.

Following his comments on September 11, where he said the US "brought the attacks on themselves", the World Boxing Council stripped Mundine of his ranking.

"Mundine is currently rated (26) in the super middleweight division and, therefore, the WBC announces that he will be sanctioned by dropping him indefinitely from the WBC ratings, since such statements are unbelievable and intolerable and seriously hurt world society and boxing," said the late WBC president Jose Sulaiman at the time.

Even the IBF was copping heat for allowing his fight to go ahead but officials at the sanctioning body later said the title fight would happen as scheduled. Although the IBF did say they reserved the right to take the title belt off Mundine if he won, warning him not to repeat the controversial statement.

The world was against Mundine, just the way he liked it. He landed in Germany a month out from the fight and wasted no time whipping up a frenzy in the local media. He told reporters that Ottke hit like a woman and that once he was done with the three-time Olympian, he would smash his sparring partner on the same night. And of course, he told them he was "The Man".

In front of 6500 fans at the Westfallenhallen, a multi-purpose venue in Dortmund, Mundine came out to a warm reception. Wearing the same red and white shorts he wore on his debut more than a year earlier, the 26-year-old wasted no time asserting his dominance, much to the surprise of the undefeated world champion with 332 amateur and professional fights to his name.

Mundine was schooling Ottke and was embarrassing him while doing it. In the middle rounds the Australian was making the champ miss at will. He taunted Ottke and the crowd. He even did an "Ali Shuffle". Mundine's confidence was beginning to grow and he continued to cause the champ troubles, even when the referee came over to his corner to take a point off for a head butt at the end of the fourth.

The latter rounds were all Ottke though, as the Australian's lack of seasoning and conditioning took its toll. The German champion started to break him down with body shots on the inside which eventually led to what looked like a soft right hand to the temple, leaving Mundine sprawled across the canvas. The former league player had quit the NRL just over a year before and wasn't used to fighting for so long at such a fast pace, with most of his fights prior ending in the earlier rounds.

Contrary to popular belief Mundine wasn't ahead on the scorecards at the time. Ottke was leading on two of the three judges scorecards with the other scoring it even, 86-84, 85-84 and 85-85.

After the fight paramedics took their place in Mundine's dressing room, to carry him via stretcher to a waiting ambulance. It's standard procedure in German sports to carry concussed athletes out but Mundine was having none of it. Despite persistent medical officials the Aussie wouldn't budge, refusing to leave on his back when he could more than capably do so on his own two feet.

Mundine on his back-side became a huge deal back home, with several newspapers plastering their back pages with the image. While detractors will point to this moment to remind Mundine of his failings, the man who caused the KO had a different view on things.

Some 17 years later, In The Ring's story, titled 'The Best I Faced', Ottke gave Mundine huge praise and singled out the Indigenous star as the toughest opponent he had ever faced. According to the German, Mundine had the best jab, defence, footwork, smarts, skills and fastest hands of any of his opponents, even though some boxing purists will say Ottke avoided the bigger names in the division during his career, like Welshman Joe Calzaghe.

"He was giving me the hardest time in the ring … He was much better than we thought," Ottke said.

"He was a very smart boxer. It was like a chess match when we fought. It was close until the last punch.

"Mundine had great tactics; he was very fluid. He had a strong mind and a good fighting attitude.

"It was my toughest fight in my whole career, until the knockout."

When asked about the fight with Ottke this week, Mundine said he regretted not listening to his father leading into the event.

Tony Mundine had stressed to his son that to fight in such a bout at such an early stage of his career, he needed to get battle worn with hard sparring sessions and build his endurance the old fashioned way. But 'The Man' had other ideas.

"He wanted me to do roadwork and spar," he told Wide World of Sports.

"Those were the main two things he wanted me to do and they get you in tremendous shape and I didn't do none of that.

"Maybe If I did I might have had that 5-10 per cent I needed at the end.

"I was pretty pig-headed bro to be honest and I didn't listen; it sort of hits me in the guts but we live and learn I suppose."

As for Ottke singling out Mundine as his best opponent, the Indigenous Australian said he was chuffed with the complimentary assessment.

"It's an honour and a privilege knowing he said that," Mundine said.

"To see him speak truth. He just had too much experience for me at the time. But I felt I had him on skills, speed all that, but I was under cooked."

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