ANTHONY MUNDINE vs CRAZY KIM

Anthony Mundine, who gave up his 168-pound title so that he could focus on winning a middleweight belt, boxes at a catchweight of 164 pounds on Wednesday when he meets tough Japanese slugger Crazy Kim.

Mundine will be weighing the lightest of his career for this bout, while Kim is a former Orient and Pacific junior middleweight champion whose last three fights have been in the light-heavy and super middle divisions. The in-between weight of 164 should suit each man.

Kim, 33, is strong and heavy-handed but he is also slow and predictable. He is the big underdog in what looks like a showcase for Mundine.

Mundine has been telling the Australian press that he feels he is finally boxing in his natural weight class. He says he wants to look impressive, and he needs a good result after his somewhat unimpressive points win over Sam Soliman in his last fight.

Kim’s record looks good but he has mostly been meeting opponents he has been able to overpower. His only loss in the last seven years was a bit of a heartbreaker; Kim was leading on points against Argentina’s Javier Mamani when he started to throw a looping right hand and was beaten to the punch by his opponent’s straighter right hand, thus suffering a sensational knockout defeat with the fight almost over.

In the fight with Mamani, Kim did a good job with pressure and body punching, but Mundine is on a different level. I am sure that Kim will be game and willing, but this looks like the sort of match in which he will find himself swinging and missing.

Mundine has the chance to look good in this fight and perhaps get a stoppage win, as he did when blowing out Kim’s compatriot Yoshinori Nishizawa in five rounds. However, Mundine, while fast and talented, is not inclined to take risks. If he feels that Kim is dangerous, he could simply hit and move and box his way to a fairly comfortable decision victory — Mundine’s last two fights went the full distance and he apparently never came close to scoring a knockdown; the verdict was booed when he beat Soliman.

I would not be too surprised if the fight went the full 10 rounds, but Kim really should be made for a sharpshooter such as Mundine, and I think that around about the eighth round the Australian boxer will be hitting the target with such accuracy that the referee will be of a mind to save Kim from taking unnecessary punishment.