‘Purest form of fighting’: Mundine launches bare knuckle boxing in Australia
Former boxing world champion Anthony Mundine has unveiled plans to stage Australia’s first big-time bare knuckle event, declaring the sport safer than its brutal appearance.
Mundine’s World Bare Knuckle Fighting is set to be launched in September and streamed online after striking a deal with a venue in Brisbane.
Anthony Mundine is throwing his weight behind bare knuckle boxing.Credit: Aresna Villanueva
“[It’s] the purest form of fighting,” said the 50-year-old, who carved out a top-level rugby league career with St George, Brisbane and NSW before switching to the ring.
“It’s about putting on a spectacle. We’re in the entertainment industry. I’m 100 per cent certain that this event will entertain.”
The Mundine production’s debut comes after the US-based Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship was blocked in June from putting on what would have been Australia’s first sanctioned bare knuckle contest.
The Western Australian Labor government had become a political punching bag over the issue, backing a proposed fight night at Perth’s RAC Arena in July before the state’s combat sports authority rejected the bare knuckle application.
Mundine’s World Bare Knuckle Fighting had designs on getting under way in his home town of Sydney, where NSW Premier Chris Minns has welcomed the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts juggernaut.
But with a submission to the Combat Sports Authority of NSW still under consideration, it has turned to Queensland, which has no such regulatory body nor specific legislation governing boxing-related competitions.
Despite not requiring approval, Mundine and his business partners Oliver Joseski and Gosh Daher said they had approached the office of Queensland Sports Minister Tim Mander.
“We’ve got their blessing. We’ve handed over all our paperwork, our constitution, our safety protocols,” said Joseski, a former boxing promoter. “We’ve gone to the police, we’ve spoken to them. They’ve basically said, ‘It’s out of our jurisdiction.’ ”
Bare knuckle boxing has grown in popularity in the US and UK in particular.Credit: Getty Images
No stranger to controversy during a dual-sport career that lasted nearly 30 years, Mundine anticipates there will be resistance to the introduction of the raw and intense discipline, which has attracted large audiences in the US and UK.
There was backlash to the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, co-owned by UFC superstar Conor McGregor, coming to Australia. The Australian Medical Association’s WA state president Michael Page called it the “human equivalent of dog fighting” and warned against the proliferation of more sports that could cause head injuries.
The state’s sport minister said she saw no difference between bare knuckle boxing and UFC cage fighting, which has been held in arenas around Australia, but the WA Combat Sports Commission ultimately ruled that the McGregor-backed proposal did not meet its criteria.
Mundine hopes a successful outing in Brisbane, where World Bare Knuckle Fighting is looking to draw a crowd of up to 4000, will help convince decision makers in other jurisdictions to give his bare knuckle organisation a chance.
The UFC, whose stars have included Conor McGregor (left), has been staged in most Australian states.Credit: Getty Images
It will have a full medical team in place and has been endorsed by veteran ringside doctor Lou Lewis.
He has told the Combat Sports Authority of NSW that, while there was a higher risk of hand injuries, cuts and more acute damage per punch in bare knuckle boxing, it posed less risk of brain trauma than fighting with gloves due to shorter blows and fewer repeated blows to the head.
“In my opinion, bare knuckle boxing stands as a legitimate combat sport practised globally, with established rules and regulations that prioritise the safety of its participants,” Lewis wrote in the Mundine team’s application.
Mundine said: “Obviously, it’s going to be bloodier because it’s bare knuckle and the skin can split quite easily. It’s going to look more scary, but it actually isn’t. We’re doing it at a professional level where the fighters train for this type of fight.”
He added that wider weight divisions would also mean that fighters would not be left drained by having to lose body mass and would be better placed to absorb a blow to the head.
There are plans for 10 bouts on the inaugural bare knuckle Australian card in Logan, in Brisbane’s southern suburbs. Fighters are expected to include Ben Horn, the brother of former world boxing champion and Mundine opponent Jeff Horn, and NRL player turned boxer Curtis Scott.
Never one not to talk a big game in his decades in the limelight, Mundine has ambitions well beyond that.
“I want to take over the combat game,” he said.
“I’ve been a part of [boxing] for 20-odd years. I just want to level up again and do it again with a sport that is going to grow rapidly.”
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