Smith shuts down retirement talk despite LIV collapse<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Lance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ea1dfbc48ee4570150bb693e1431acf3f80a371a.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lance McDonald punches Rahim Mundine.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old lapped up the vicious reception from the audience, feeling he won the fight comfortably. <\/p>\n
When asked if he was surprised by the crowd’s reaction, Mundine said, “it’s going to keep happening and I’m going to keep winning and keep learning and keep getting better”.<\/p>\n
“I landed the cleaner shots easily, but he’s a tough competitor, he threw a lot of punches, a real tough dude, but I won easy.”<\/p>\n
His father then took to the microphone and the booing continued. <\/p>\n
“I don’t know why you’re all booing for. The game is hit and not be hit. CJ done a good job. McDonald is a tough man, he comes forward, he throws a lot of punches, but CJ landed his shots and it was his night,” Anthony Mundine said.<\/p>\n
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/c865842eb030733a22cd71f07633750948461bb0.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Anthony Mundine looks on as Rahim Mundine defeats Lance McDonald.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Kayo coverage before the decision was announced, Australian boxer Liam Paro called the fight “a close one”.<\/p>\n
“You have to respect McDonald, he came to fight and I truly believe he out-worked Mundine tonight,” Paro said.<\/p>\n
“The body language of the Mundine corner, it didn’t go to the game-plan they expected and that’s credit to McDonald and their team. They smothered the fight. (Mundine) wants to sit back and look pretty and he didn’t let him do that.<\/p>\n
“McDonald made him fight and it was a lot tougher than (Mundine) anticipated.”<\/p>\n
Boxing commentator Peter Badel said after the decision that CJ had a lot of work to do if he hoped to make it as a professional boxer. <\/p>\n
![\"Rahim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/40cb24aa238a71e839a640a3d95219c393fb63aa.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Rahim Mundine frustrated by the booing.\u00a0FOX Sports<\/p>\n
“He calls himself the dream, it was almost a nightmare,” Badel said.<\/p>\n
“Credit to McDonald, he was outstanding for his ability, but he’s got a long way to go CJ Mundine, let’s be honest, it was only his third fight in four years. He’s learning his craft.<\/p>\n
“He’s got his father’s gait, but not his ability at this stage of his career. I thought his jab was poor, his fundamentals were sloppy, natural for someone so young, but he’s only 24.<\/p>\n
“Let’s hope he’s got more in him because he’s got a great name and he’s got a great sell, but he’s got a lot of work to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rahim “CJ” Mundine has been booed relentlessly by the Newcastle crowd after winning a controversial unanimous points decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-653973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}