Anthony Mundine and Daniel Geale comfortably removed South American roadblocks to their boxing rematch with convincing wins at the Silverdome in Launceston on Wednesday.

Geale (22-1, 13 KOs) won every round on each judge’s card to record a complete 120-108 shutout over Brazil’s Samir Dos Santos Barbosa (22-6-3, 17 KOs) and win the vacant IBF Pan Pacific middleweight title.

Mundine (37-3, 23 KOS) was almost as dominant in recording a unanimous 10-round win over Argentina’s Alejandro Falliga (17-6-3, 6 KOs) in a non-title fight.

The IBO middleweight world champion earned the judges’ favour by two scores of 100-90 and one of 99-91.

Mundine spent most of the fight stalking his opponent, but the Argentinian spent most all of the bout backing away from the Australian and rarely engaged in exchanges.

The Australian was first to the punch with his jab and landed the occasional right-hand power shot, but was rarely able to sustain pressure on an opponent whose only objective appeared to be survival.

“He came here to survive, it didn’t make it real entertaining for the fans, but I had to deal with what was in front of me,” Mundine said in his post-fight ring interview.

“I was feeling good, I was feeling strong, I caught him a few times but he kept on his bike and I couldn’t pin him where I wanted to pin him.”

He said he was looking forward to a rematch with Geale, and fighting the winner of the Australian Contender reality TV boxing show.

Mundine also threw out a challenge to the winner of the December 5 middleweight world title fight between Kelly Pavlik and Paul Williams.

Geale, fighting for the first time as a professional in the city of his birth, enjoyed a triumphant homecoming.

He controlled the bout with his superior speed, peppering his opponent with jabs and combinations.

Although the Brazilian boasted a decent KO percentage he rarely connected with anything of substance.

The win should improve Geale’s IBF world ranking of ninth and move him closer to a world title fight and a rematch with Mundine, who inflicted his only defeat.

“I would have been in there tonight with him, if they let me I would have been in there tonight and we would have given it to him,” Geale said of Mundine in his post-fight ring interview.

“He knows that, that’s why he wants to prolong it as much as he can.”
Sourced via smh.com.au

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