Great article telling it exactly how it is from the Courier Mail
"I DON'T know what to say. I hit him with some good shots and when that happens you can see their heart shrivel up. Most guys want to keep fighting. They'd rather eat it than dog it, but unfortunately he didn't show a lot of heart."
Danny Green talking about Paul Briggs in Perth on Wednesday night? Nope. Paul Briggs talking about Jose Alberto Clavero in Brisbane on June 16, 2006.
Clavero was a blow-in from Argentina who was disqualified in the fifth round for refusing to fight. It was a performance that disgusted everyone who saw it. Everyone, that is, except Anthony Mundine, who gave Clavero a shot at his world title on the strength of it.
Still, at least he went five rounds before quitting, unlike Briggs on Wednesday night. His pathetic 29 seconds of shame will live forever.
And the person who should carry that shame the most is Danny Green.
Back on May 17, 2006, I was one of the 30,000-odd fight fans who made a pilgrimage to Sydney Football Stadium to watch a magnificent Mundine dismantle a menacing Green like a matador mesmerising an angry bull. It was one of the best nights of sport I have ever witnessed. It was intoxicating: the atmosphere, the celebrity-packed crowd, the triumph of athleticism over violence.
On that night Anthony Mundine and Danny Green held the future of Australian boxing in their gloved hands.
I know there are plenty of people who abhor boxing. They don't consider it a sport and believe it should be banned. Wednesday night's farce just adds weight to their arguments, but back in May, 2006, Mundine and Green showcased the sport at its best.
And just about every day since, they have shown it at its worst.
Instead of using that night as a springboard to take their skills on to the world stage they have insisted on fighting, with a few exceptions, a collection of has-beens and never-wases, achieving nothing more than lining their own pockets and ripping off their loyal but gullible supporters.
Not that it didn't attract the scorn of disgruntled punters. With each second-rate fight - and the obligatory claim that he was now ready to take on the world's best - Mundine's reputation dropped faster than the euro, yet the Green "brand" managed to stay immune to the criticism.
To those who didn't know better he was, in effect, the "anti-Mundine"; a legitimate world champion who fought, as he put it, "whoever they put in front of me".
Or he did until he and his handlers hit the jackpot, luring an over-the-hill Roy Jones Jr to Australia for an over-hyped mercy killing that netted a fortune and had them trawling the old-boxers' homes looking for similarly big-named cash cows. Happily, mooted bouts against Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield never eventuated - or maybe they're too far gone to answer the phone. If only Paul Briggs hadn't answered his.
How did Danny Green ever think this was a good idea?
He must have known Briggs was damaged goods. Everyone else in boxing did. Three weeks ago a leading trainer told me he had watched Briggs sparring in preparation for the fight.
"Something's not right there," he said. "It won't go two rounds."
When I told him the NSW authorities were refusing to give Briggs a licence he answered, "Thank God."
Sadly God didn't have the final say. Green simply went to where he is the Supreme Being - Western Australia - and got the fight sanctioned there. When Jeff Fenech, a man who has never been accused of being squeamish, described the match-up as "criminal" he wasn't far off the money.
Briggs was neither physically nor mentally fit. There are now genuine fears that the humiliation he suffered will have disastrous effects on an already troubled young man.
Seconds after Briggs had been booed from the ring and pelted with garbage, Green told the crowd that "no one's as pissed off as me" and promised to make it up to them.
How? By handing back their money? Of course not. By asking them to come back. Like Mundine, the man he has criticised for fighting bums, Green will simply go looking for someone else he can beat with as little trouble and as close to home as possible.
The best thing Green and Mundine could possibly do is to fight each other, properly and honourably like they did in 2006, put the sport back where it was that night and walk away forever.
It won't happen though. Even as we speak, poor Paul Briggs is too ashamed to show his face and Danny Green is looking for another bum.
Jose Alberto Clavero should stay close to his phone.
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