By Alex McClintock
Australia's Anthony Mundine (44-4, 26KO) impressed in his American debut tonight, taking seven rounds to knock out the tough but overmatched Bronco McKart (54-10-1, 32KO) at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, broadcast on Wealth TV PPV.
Sydney, Australia's Mundine looked explosive in spurts but also took large stretches of the middleweight bout off.
Mundine came to the ring escorted by Native American dancers and his father, former middleweight contender Tony Mundine. With very little time for feeling out, McKart began applying pressure in the first round, while Mundine landed lead right hands on the Michigan southpaw.
The pattern continued in the second, and in the third Mundine put McKart against the ropes for periods, firing combinations.
The fighters began to exchange in the fourth and “The Man” got the better of it, ripping combinations to the head and body of his veteran opponent. In the fifth and sixth Mundine alternated between throwing stinging combinations and wasting time, even clowning.
The Australian caught McKart behind the ear with a clubbing left hook to start the seventh, sending him to the canvas. With plenty of time to go in the round, Mundine jumped on his wounded rival, knocking him down again with a roundhouse right against the ropes.
The official stoppage came shortly after, at 2.04 of round seven, with McKart's corner throwing in the towel in response to a series of Mundine uppercuts.
In his post fight remarks, Mundine said that he wanted to stay at 154 pounds and work his way towards fighting Floyd Mayweather, Miguel Cotto and Saul Alvarez.
Floyd Mayweather Sr, who was in the ring, gave Mundine something of a dose of reality.
“Floyd's the man to fight if you want to get beat.”
TELEVISED UNDERCARD
In a light heavyweight bout for the IBF “International light heavyweight title” Cornelius White (20-1, 16KO) beat Russia's Dmitry Sukhotsky (18-2, 13KO) by wide unanimous decision. Houston's White dominated most of the fight with his lengthy jab and started landing hard power shots to the head and body in the later rounds. Sukhotsky fought gamely until the final bell, but finished the fight with both eyes gruesomely swollen and cut over his right eye. The official scores were 119-109, 118-110 and 120-108.
In the televised opener, heavyweight prospect Ahror Muralimov (13-0, 11KO) preserved his unbeaten record with an eight-round unanimous decision win over American journeyman Andrae Carthron. Scores were 78-74 (twice) and 77-75 in favor of Muralimov, a native of Uzbekistan who has now fought five straight times in the United States.
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