Class of 2023 inducted into the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame

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 was 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 beltholder Marcus Beyer in Germany for what referee Bill Clancy ruled as 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-standing rivalry with Anthony Mundine, against whom he fought a pair of bouts in 2006 and 2017. Their first fight drew more than 30,000 fans to the Sydney Football Stadium with Mundine scoring 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 would get when Green stepped in the ring was action.

Danny Green (right) lands a punch on Anthony Mundine – Photo by Damian Brierty

ANBHOF president Brett McCormick said the new category was necessary to give recently retired boxers a chance to be inducted by measuring their achievements against their peers.

“We put the Millennial category in because the Moderns were getting too many years,” McCormick explained to The Ring. “For example, Lionel Rose, who fought in the 60s and 70s, was coming up against guys like Danny Green, who only retired a few years ago. It became too much. Instead of changing all the years around and making a drastic change to all the categories, we decided to bring in a new category, which gives us another 20 years of space to still honor the fighters who would normally 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 victories 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, a prime Jones Jr stopped him in the seventh round.

A fourth-round loss to fellow inductee Paul Briggs was followed by a move up to cruiserweight, where he put together three straight wins before running into David Haye, who stopped him in two. 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 was inducted in 2022.

“Some people are just stiff in the era they come up in,” said McCormick. “Tony Mundine was stiff to come up against Carlos Monzon. There was Troy Waters, too. He was one punch away from becoming world champion. Glen Kelly came up against Roy Jones Jr at his peak. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be dead to be stiff.”

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, 135-fight veteran Ralph Dupas from New Orleans got his flowers. Dupas made his Australian debut in 1960, defeating George Barnes on points. He would ultimately fight here seven times, including an unsuccessful challenge for the WBC junior middleweight title against Sandro Mazzinghi in their rematch in 1963.

The always colorful ring announcer Howard Leigh was inducted in the Non-Combatants category.

Ring Magazine cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia. (Photo courtesy of @JaiOpetaia)

In addition to the inductions, the ANBHOF also presented two awards on the night. 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,” said McCormick. “He has just conquered the world, he is getting praised as being the best cruiserweight going around by a mile, and he’s an Aussie. He has 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 more than twenty years. The voluntary organization’s aim has remained the same throughout its existence: to recognize and honor the great contributors to the sport in this country and give them permanent acknowledgement.

Simply put, the ANBHOF are doing something on a national level that is not being done in other countries around the world.

“We had Ricky Hatton out here as a guest one year,” said McCormick. “He couldn’t be happier to shake everyone’s hand in the room. We went out on the booze afterwards and had an unbelievable night until the early morning. He was telling me what a great thing this Hall of Fame is. He said he couldn’t believe that such a small country as Australia has such a great thing going on. ‘We don’t have this in England,’ he said.”

McCormick believes other boxing nations should look to Australia for the blueprint to establishing their own hall of fame.

“At the moment, we’re the trailblazers,” he said. “You’ve got the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in America doing their thing, but that’s it. I don’t know of any other country with a National Boxing Hall of Fame.”