A month after his impressive effort over Stipe Drews, Australia’s WBA light heavyweight champion Danny Green has slowed down for the first time in his seven year professional career to enjoy his profound success both in and outside the ring. “Danny is absolutely over the moon with his WBA light heavy weight world title win and his life in general at present,” said Justin Manolikos, Green’s manager and partner in the promotional firm Green Machine..
“Just after the bout, his second child, a son named Archie, was bought into the world so it was an amazing end to 2007 for The Green Machine! He is currently having six weeks off to enjoy his recent achievements and set his goals for 2008.”
Not content to rest on his laurels, the 34 year old slugger has set his sights on immediately leveraging the WBA belt into a clash with the light heavyweight division’s longest serving world champion, but must also defend the WBA belt in the near future against a very dangerous mandatory challenger.
“We are currently looking at various options as to Danny’s next move,” said Manolikos. “The WBA have ordered his mandatory against Hugo Garay of Argentina to be undertaken by 16 April. However, we have been approached about doing a unification bout with WBO champion Zsolt Erdei also, which is a huge opportunity for Danny. This next bout is likely to again be in his home town of Perth, Western Australia.”
Green, 25-3 (22), has been drawing sizable audiences Down Under since early in his pro career, culminating in the 2006 super middleweight pairing with his nemesis Anthony Mundine in front of over 30,000 people in Sydney, but a rematch at a higher weight with “The Man” or a long anticipated showdown with Green’s only serious domestic competition at light heavyweight could result in the highest grossing Aussie fight card of all time.
“As well as the Erdei and Garay fights, there are potentially two large domestic matchups waiting to happen,” said Manolikos. “These are with twice WBC title contender Paul Briggs and of course, WBA super middle weight title holder Anthony Mundine. Either one of these would bring huge domestic support and overseas interest. So, as you can see, there are many attractive and lucrative match ups for Danny for 2008.”
For Danny Green, the Drews victory provides opportunity to go forward with a clean slate. “I’d like to say thanks to all those that have continued to support me, particularly after my losses to Beyer and Mundine at super middle,” said Green. “The atmosphere during the bout with Drews was electric. Many people, including some so called experts, told me to retire and to them, I also say ‘thank you’ for driving me to become a two time, two weight division world champion!”