Mundine v Mosley cancellation is Australian boxing's latest farce

Anthony Mundine sparring at his father Tony's gym at Redfern in the run-up to his cancelled fight against Shane Mosley. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP Image

Australian boxing’s ability to descend into farce is completely unrivalled. Shane Mosley pulling out of his fight with Anthony Mundine the day before it was due to take place is just the latest in a long line of embarrassments for the sport.

"It's unfortunate that this fight will not be taking place, and we apologise to all of Shane's Australian fans, but there are contracts in place for a reason, and when the terms are not adhered to, we have no choice but to protect our fighter, and that's what happened here," said Richard Schaefer, Mosley's promoter, in a statement. In a 20-year career, Mosley has never done anything similar, so there's no reason to disbelieve him.

The promotion had been dogged by problems from the start; there were rumours of poor ticket sales and “Sugar Shane” had already threatenedto pull out when an earlier sum wasn’t promptly paid. Draw your own conclusions.

It’s a pity, because Mosley v Mundine was actually set to be a pretty good fight. Not because either man is a true contender at this stage; the opposite, it was set to be a good fight because they’re not. The once formidable Mosley is so faded and punch-affected that he had to be subtitled in TV advertisements for the fight, which put him on about the same level as Mundine, who was never a truly world-class fighter.

As much as Mundine is seen in a negative light in many quarters – his comment that America had “brought 9/11 on themselves" still rears its head more than a decade on– this particular cancellation wasn’t his fault, at least not in the short term. And to his credit, he was extremely classy at a press conference this afternoon: "I lay no blame on Mosley. He's just a fighter trying to take care of himself. He's just trying to get paid."

But it’s not difficult to see how his unpopularity with some and previous fights against low-quality opposition led to poor ticket sales and a lack of interest in the promotion. 

His Muhammad Ali/Floyd Mayweather Lite schtick became too much for many to bear when he accused Daniel Geale of being an “Uncle Tom” before their last fight. He boasts that every one of his fights has been on pay-per-view, which means that he has expected his fans to fork out for 49 fights, the vast majority of which were not against world-class fighters. I’d be shocked if anyone outside his immediate family has bought them all.

And Mundine v Mosley offered nothing punters hadn’t seen before. Adown on his luck hall-of-famer, lured to Australia with pile of money – check. A footballer moonlighting as a boxer in a complete and utter mismatch – check. And, of course, a barren undercard light on top-class talent, designed to help everyone catch up on sleep before the main event at midnight.

So what happens now? There’s some talk of the fight being rescheduled in six weeks’ time with Mundine’s manager, Khoder Nasser, as the promoter. But Mosley is unlikely to return and you can hardly blame him.

Australian boxing, meanwhile, has been left with a huge black eye that won’t be remedied with a cold steak. It will be that much more difficult to convince international stars to visit our shores in future. As yet it’s unclear whether the punters who bought tickets to Mundine v Mosley will get refunds. Even if they do, they’ll think twice about buying tickets to a boxing match again. Mundine can’t be blamed completely for Australia’s boxing’s shrunken fanbase and a jaded public but his controversial comments and so-so opponents haven’t helped.

Journalist Phil Lutton suggests the sport needs a crisis summit. That’d be nice, but it won’t happen. If this episode proves anything it’s that boxing is the free market gone wild and nobody is looking out for anyone but themselves.

Luckily Australia still has some very good fighters. Middleweight Daniel Geale, despite a close loss in his last outing, is genuinely world class andnice guy to boot. Former Olympians Jeff Horn and Damien Hooper are both exciting and skilled. There are good fighters at every level training in gyms around the country.

It’s often said that “boxing is dead”. It’s certainly true to say it’s on life support in Australia. But people do love to see blokes punch one another in the head, so fans of the sport just have to hope that the next generation of boxers (and promoters) learn from the mistakes of the current era.