The Class of 2023 in Australia’s National Boxing Hall of Fame – Photo by Tamara Jane Photography.
Danny Green was inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame (ANBHOF) in the newly created Millennial category at the annual gala dinner held at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Victoria on Saturday night.
The Perth product has been a mainstay of the Australian boxing scene for 16 years, fighting for a world title in just his second year as a pro when he was controversially disqualified in the fifth round against WBC super middleweight belt holder Marcus Beyer in Germany for what referee Bill Clancy ruled an intentional headbutt.
While Green would eventually pick up the WBA light heavyweight belt against Stipe Drews in 2007, he will be best remembered for his long-running rivalry with Anthony Mundine, against whom he fought a pair of bouts in 2006 and 2017. Their first fight drew over 30,000 fans to the Sydney Football Stadium with Mundine taking a clear points victory.
Green, now 51, retired after defeating Mundine by majority decision in their rematch at Adelaide Oval 11 years after they first met in the ring. He has boxed against some top-quality opponents over the course of his career, including Roy Jones Jr (W-TKO1), Antonio Tarver (L-RTD9), Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (L-TKO11) and Shane Cameron (W-UD12 ). The one thing you always knew you were going to get when Green stepped into the ring was action.
Danny Green (right) lands a punch on Anthony Mundine – Photo by Damian Brierty
Brett McCormick, president of ANBHOF, said the new category was needed to give recently retired boxers a chance to be inducted by measuring their achievements against their peers.
“We put in the Millennial category because the Moderns got too many years,” McCormick explained to The Ring. “For example, Lionel Rose, who fought in the 60s and 70s, faced guys like Danny Green, who only retired a few years ago. It became too much. Instead of changing all these years around and making a drastic change to all the categories, we decided to bring in a new category, giving us another 20 years of room to still honor the fighters that normally would have come under the Modern category.”
Former world title challenger Glen ‘Kunga’ Kelly joined Green in the Hall of Fame in the Modern category.
Kelly turned pro in 1995 and ran his record to 28-0-1 with notable wins over John Mugabi and Sam Soliman to earn himself a shot at Ring Magazine and undisputed light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. Unfortunately for Kelly, an excellent Jones Jr. him in the seventh round.
A fourth-round loss to fellow inductee Paul Briggs was followed by a move up to cruiserweight, where he strung together three straight wins before running into David Haye, who stopped him twice. Kelly, 53, retired in 2005 with a solid record of 31-3-1 with 17 knockouts. He joins his older brother, former Commonwealth champion and junior middleweight contender Kevin ‘Bones’ Kelly, in the Hall of Fame after his sibling is inducted in 2022.
“Some people are just stiff in the era they’re coming up in,” McCormick said. “Tony Mundine was stiff to face Carlos Monzon. There was also Troy Waters. He was one shot away from becoming world champion. Glen Kelly at his peak against Roy Jones Jr. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be dead to be tough.”
Other inductees this year included Billy McCall in the Pioneer category and Bobby Delaney in the Old Timers category. The hard-hitting McCall was the Australian heavyweight champion from 1902 to 1903 and for three months in 1905, while Delaney was the Australian lightweight champion in the early 1930s.
Paul Moore saw his name added to the Veterans category. Moore held the Australian welterweight crown in 1973 before retiring the same year to become a successful judge and referee.
In the International category, the 135-fight veteran Ralph Dupas of New Orleans got his flowers. Dupas made his Australian debut in 1960, defeating George Barnes on points. He would eventually fight here seven times, including an unsuccessful challenge for the WBC junior middleweight title against Sandro Mazzinghi in their 1963 rematch.
The always colorful ring announcer Howard Leigh was inducted into the Non-Combatant category.
Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia. (Photo courtesy of @JaiOpetaia)
In addition to the inductions, the ANBHOF also presented two awards on the evening. Veteran promoter Angelo Di Carlo received the Gus Mercurio Memorial Award for his services to the sport over the past quarter century, while Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia earned Fighter of the Year honors.
“Jai Opetaia is our Fighter of the Year this year,” McCormick said. “He’s just taken the world by storm, he’s hailed as the best cruiserweight around by a mile, and he’s an Aussie. He’s been to our Hall of Fame induction dinner before and he thought it was the best thing ever.”
The annual ANBHOF induction dinner has been a highlight of the Australian boxing calendar for over twenty years. The voluntary organization’s goal has remained the same throughout its existence: to recognize and honor the great contributors to the sport in this country and give them permanent recognition.
Simply put, the ANBHOF is doing something at the national level that is not being done in other countries around the world.
“We had Ricky Hatton here as a guest one year,” McCormick said. “He couldn’t be happier shaking everyone’s hand in the room. After that we went out drinking and had an amazing night until early morning. He told me what a big deal this Hall of Fame is. He said he couldn’t believe that such a small country like Australia had such a big thing going on. ‘We don’t have that in England,’ he said.
McCormick believes other boxing nations should look to Australia for the blueprint for establishing their own hall of fame.
“At the moment we are the leaders,” he said. “You have the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in America doing their thing, but that’s it. I know of no other country with a National Boxing Hall of Fame.”
