By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing
Photos: Tim Barry

Australian super middleweight 2010 Contender champion Garth “Woodsy” Wood (10-1-1, 5 KOs) caused the biggest upset in Australian boxing for several years when he scored a fifth round knockout over former WBA super middleweight champion Anthony “The Man” Mundine (40-4, 24 KOs) in a scheduled ten round contest at the Acer Arena, Homebush, Sydney, NSW, Australia on Wednesday. Wood aggressively attacked Mundine but the former champ evaded many of the bombs early with clever foot work. In a scrappy contest – Wood found the range in round five for a left hook bomb to the temple that dropped the WBA #2 rated Mundine and at :58 Wood was crowned the winner by referee Les Fear.

Afterward, Mundine had nothing but praise for Wood. “You get caught, but it’s about how you bounce back…so all credit to him,” Mundine said. “I’ll go back to the drawing board and talk to my team and see where we go from there. Congrats to Garth – he thoroughly deserves it.”

Wood, who will now be chasing a world title in the 168 pound division, commented “What do I say? I’m the best kept secret, but you are all aware of me now…it was hard to get to Anthony early, I think he was aware of my power and I was just trying to bang away on is body but he was grabbing on me for a while. When I had the chance – I hit him with the left hook – that’s what we’ve been training for. If it wasn’t for him (Mundine), I never would have got a knock on the door, I never would have been able to chase my dream since I was a kid. I take my hat off to him, I’ve got all the time in the world for him.”

This was the fourth loss for Mundine who had previously lost to Mikkell Kessler in 2005, Manny Siaca in 2004 and a KO loss to Sven Ottke in 2001. Wood was having only his 12th pro fight against Mundine having launched his career in 2007. He was KO’d in his second pro bout by Ben Fetilika, but later scored impressive wins over former world rated Victor Oganov and Kariz Kariuki in 2010 to capture the Australian Contender super middleweight championship.

In other action, IBF #5 featherweight Billy Dib (30-1, 18 KOs) controlled the action against Mick Shaw (27-13-3, 8 KOs) and forced a stoppage in round six.

Australian middleweight champion Johannes Mwetupunga (10-2, 4 KOs) retained the title with a clear cut decision over Peter Mitrevski (23-8-1, 11 KOs) over ten rounds. Scores 99-91, 98-93, 99-91.

In a junior welterweight bout, Robert Whaley (5-1-2, 3 KOs) stopped Abner Llanasa (5-2-1, 3 KOs) in round one.

World rated (IBF) female bantamweight Susie Ramadan (19-0, 8 KOs) outscored Michelle Preston (6-5, 1 KO) of New Zealand over six rounds by scores of 60-54, 60-54, 60-56.

Super middleweight Fred Nagi (3-2, 2 KOs) outpointed Rakesh Kumar (1-8) over four rounds. Scores 40-34, 40-36, 40-36.

Heavyweight Danyon Greig (0-0-1), 224 lbs, boxed a four round draw against Kyle Brumby (1-2-1), 210 lbs. Scores 39-38, 39-39, 38-38.

Super middleweight Peter Kazzi (14-1-1, 7 KOs) outpointed Aswin Cabuy (11-20-1, 4 KOs) over four rounds. 39-37, 39-36, 38-37.

Promoter Tony Mundine Sr.