19.09.06 – By Eddy Manning: You can look at anybodys life as one giant road full of different situations and confrontations, ‘a journey’. In the sport of boxing it is just as easy to use this cliche in describing a fighters career and the way it evolves. For Danny Green the road is seemingly coming to an end and there may be no way around the dead end. On Wednesday night in Green’s hometown of Perth, Australia he will step into the ring for the 25th time to take on one time foe Jason Delisle for the IBF Pan-Pacific title..
Green’s short career, short in the context of what he has achieved and been through that is, has been full of highs and lows and just as many twists and turns. This past May Green finally came head to head with Anthony Mundine, the man who he had shared a bitter rivalry with since the very early stages of his professional career that was sparked by Green’s one time trainer Jeff Fenech and morphed into one of the great rivalries in Australian sport. The fight was billed as the biggest fight in Australian boxing history and the first multi-million dollar fight to grace these shores and for the winner would come another shot at the upper echelon of the Super Middleweight division, a shot that both fighters had a vehement desire for. It was a career defining fight for both men. The result? An imposing twelve round unanimous decision to Anthony Mundine in what was almost a master class in the science of boxing, Danny Green merely a guinea pig used for demonstrating purpose. Mundines stocks rose like price of oil whilst Green slumped to near liquidation, retirement seemed imminent…
Danny Green would have had reason to feel disillusioned and maybe even a touch unlucky after losing to Mundine, not due to the scorecards or even the way parts of the fight played out. Green had been here before on the big stage, twice fighting for the WBC title against long time champion Markus Beyer in the champions own backyard of Germany and most will say Green could and probably should of been 2-0 against the slick German instead of languishing missed opportunities at 0-2. In their first bout Green had the German champion on the canvas through hard knockdowns in the first and second rounds consecutively before allowing Beyer to compose and win the next few rounds. Green’s brain snapped and he was controversially disqualified for a illegal head butt on a large cut above Beyers eye, although many thought the cut was originally caused by a punch.
Green ventured back to fight Beyer 18 months on and a year prior to the fateful Mundine bout and this time had a much harder time coming to terms with the skill and movement of Beyer, Green was lethargic in his efforts during the fight and let Beyer steal round after round until the twelfth round when the urgency belatedly kicked in and Green had the champ down in the opening moments. Unfortunately one round of sustained pressure and power hitting wasn’t enough and Green lost a razor sharp MD. Again most thought the fight could have been Green’s if he started pressuring in the tenth or eleventh round and gave himself maximum time to take out a tiring Beyer, your only as good as your last mistake and Green was yet again flying home empty handed.
Between Green’s second bout with Beyer and the Mundine fight he fought twice against lesser opposition taking out James Crawford and then unable to knock out Kino Garcia, a Mexican with a 37-26-3 record in his final lead up fight to Mundine on a joint card that was headlined by Mundine himself. Signs may have been ominous for Green in more ways than one when he was forced to postpone the Mundine bout for a month due to breaking vertebrae in his back while training.
Following the loss, Green’s fans and followers alike where all curious as to wether we had seen the last of Danny Green. Green announced he would contemplate his future with his family and later announced his comeback fight against Delisle. Green has recently revealed that he is lactose intolerant and in the weeks following the bout with Mundine he spent eight days in hospital with Morphine used as a sedative. Tests revealed that Green had a problem with his pancreas, it cannot process food correctly and can reult in ‘sugar overloads’ leading to crippling pain. Green was forced onto a new diet without sugar.
So the next turn is that of the steps that Green will make into the squared circle on Wednesday for a serious litmus test against Delisle. The fight will be contested at Light Heavyweight, Delisles preferred weight and is the third time the fighters will do battle (It is locked at 1-1 after Delisle beat Green in the amateurs and Green extracted revenge in his 16th pro fight via 5th round TKO).
Ask most with any knowledge on this fight and they will likely point towards another stoppage in favor of Danny Green although Delisle cannot be easily discounted this time. Some intriguing and possibly telling signs are appearing for Green with the back injury sustained before the Mundine fight and the newly discovered health problem of Greens combined with an age where retirement is at the forefront of alot of fighters minds (Green is the better part of 33). Green’s mental state will still have a lingering question mark over it and in a sport where focus is such a key most people don’t forget about such debilitating losses as that of the nature Green suffered to Mundine anytime quickly. All aside and on the surface, Danny Green seems confident and optimistic about this fight and his future already sighting his interest in a shot at the winner of the Markus Beyer Vs Mikkel Kessler bout in mid October. Which direction will the journey head in after Wednesday night?