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MELBOURNE - The world title boxing fight between champion Anthony Mundine and Pablo Zamora Nievas next month should be cancelled to prevent the challenger suffering serious injury, a group representing Australian doctors said today.
Australian Mundine, a former rugby league player, is scheduled to defend his super middleweight World Boxing Association (WBA) title against Argentina's inexperienced Nievas on the Gold Coast on June 27.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the fight should not take place because Nievas, who has never fought more than six professional rounds, could suffer damage against his powerful opponent.
"Boxing's extremely dangerous, but in these situations it becomes even more dangerous," AMA spokesman Shaun Rudd was quoted as saying in Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"You get somebody who's willing to be bashed up by somebody who can bash them up and you pay them money for that."
Rudd said referees in that situation tended not to stop the fight early in order to let the crowd "see a bit more blood" and get everybody excited.
"You see in these sort of bouts why boxing should be banned."
The newspaper quoted Australia's senior boxing official, International Boxing Federation vice-president Ray Wheatley, as describing the bout as a "total mismatch".
"There is a real chance this kid from Argentina could get badly hurt. It beggars belief that the WBA could sanction this. Unfair contests like this give boxing a bad name."
Mundine, 31, regained the WBA title after a ninth-round knockout of fellow Australian Sam Soliman in Sydney in March.
- REUTERS
