30.11.04 – By Eddy Manning: Danny Green may be better than most at playing the waiting game these days, it has been almost 16 months since Green travelled to Germany for what would go down as one of the worst and most controversially disputed decisions in recent years. Challenging for the WBC Super middleweight title against hometown hero Markus Beyer, Green came in as an underdog and belted to Markus Beyer what nobody had ever before. What resulted was a 5th Round disqualification victory for Beyer and an angry Danny Green searching for answers.
After demoralising belting including two knockdowns and a near stoppage, Danny Green was still leaving Germany empty handed. It was such a beating that Green gave Beyer that after the fight Beyer played with the thought of taking a year of boxing. For Green this would not have mattered in the slightest as it has been well over that since Green was smeared with the blood of the German champion.
Four months after the Beyer bout Green travelled to foreign grounds yet again, this time to face the highly touted Canadian veteran Eric Lucas who had also been the victim of a ‘German decision’ in a recent bout with Markus Beyer. Many thought that Lucas was a step up in class for Green and yet again the Green Machine came in an underdog. In front of 15,000 pro-Lucas Canadians Danny Green tasted world championship gold for the first time in the form of the WBC Interim title.
Following the Lucas bout Green was mandated to face Beyer in February but due to an injury sustained in training camp he was forced to pull out, in Green’s absence Beyer fought Andre Thysse and won a 12 Round decision. Green’s first outing since the Lucas victory was a 10 round fight against Sean Sullivan. Green pitched a shutout but suffered serious heat exhaustion against Sullivan which again forced him out of an opportunity to face Beyer in June of this year. As the bad luck kept rolling for Green, Beyer was outboxed by Christian Sanavia in June forcing yet another setback.
When Green defeated Omar Gonzalez in September and Beyer regained his title against Sanavia in October it almost seemed imminent that Green and Beyer where finally going to go at it for a second time. A small roadblock almost delayed the fight yet again when Dane Mikkel Kessler was mandated to face Green in a #1 Contender bout. Luckily for Green the Kessler camp did not want to face him in Australia and instead opted to fight for the rival WBA strap.
As the Green camp was ready to engage in a purse bid with the Beyer camp on December 1 it was announced that Beyer would be making an optional defence against Japanese journeyman Yoshiniro Nishizawa on December 17th. The WBC decided to mandate the bout because of the financial position they are in but yet again, Danny Green has been set back- hopefully only a matter of months this time. WBC President Jose Suleiman has only pushed the Green-Beyer purse bid back 10 days to December 11th with Beyer being forced to meet Green within 90 days of December 1. Green has taken the Beyer-Nishizawa bout as a positive in his stride towards claiming Beyer’s title. “It’s the same time frame,” he said. “There is no difference, except that Beyer is fighting Nishizawa in-between.” Green told reporter Paul Upham when asked about the bout. Offcourse there is the possibility of Beyer losing or injuring himself but Green still has options- If Nishizawa wins then his first mandatory must be against Green. If Beyer injures himself in the Nishizawa bout and is unable to meet the WBC requirements then he will be stripped and Danny Green will the WBC Super Middleweight champion.
As he uses all the frustration of the past year and harnesses it as positive energy it is little wonder why Beyer is staying of the ring with Green for as long as possible, It may be a different Beyer and it may be a different Green that we see when these two finally meet again but there is definitely bad blood here, and Green hopes that he leaves the ring this time with not only Markus Beyers blood covering him but his belt to go along with it.