http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=101908
Mundine win prompts violence
Thursday May 18 10:50 AEST
Boxing fans went wild in a series of brawls sparked by the Anthony Mundine-Danny Green super middleweight fight in Sydney.
Fuelled by alcohol, and possibly Mundine's win, pub patrons in Perth and Adelaide were involved in a series of fights in pubs and hotel carparks, police said.
Trouble was also reported in Queensland, where fights in Ipswich, Noosa and Brisbane are also believed linked to the Sydney bout, shown live on pay TV in pubs across the country.
Perth police said they were called to 13 hotels across the metropolitan area, with up to 60 people involved.
In the worst incident three men were knocked unconscious at the Coolbellup Tavern in Fremantle and required hospital treatment.
A 45-year-old man remained in hospital in a serious condition, a police spokeswoman said.
Several arrests were also made across Perth, including three men involved in a fight at the Kwinana Lodge Hotel.
Danny Green comes from Perth, but the police spokeswoman said hotels were unprepared for the large crowds watching the title fight.
At many venues patrons were forced to watch through hotel windows and from footpaths with the fight broadcast exclusively on pay television.
Police said a number of hotels had failed to put in sufficient crowd control measures but the behaviour of pub patrons remained very disappointing.
"Maybe, had the result been different, things wouldn't have got so out of hand," she said.
"But people were just fuelled by drink, disappointment and aggression."
In Adelaide, police responded to 14 calls at pubs and hotel carparks where fights and scuffles had broken out.
The calls came from most areas including inner Adelaide and suburbs both north and south of the city.
All the fights ended without major incident with patrons moved on or asked to leave, a spokesman said.
"All had been drinking and watching the fight live on TV," he said.
"Either it wasn't a popular win and they were fighting over the result or they were just fuelled by too many drinks and then suddenly everyone thinks they're Rocky Balboa.
"Some people just got too carried away."
In Queensland, police were called to break up a brawl in the car park of a hotel in Ipswich involving up to 30 people, which erupted after the tavern closed about midnight.
In a separate incident, police used capsicum spray to subdue a man after officers were called to the Tewantin Noosa RSL on the Sunshine Coast, where a number of people were fighting.
In Brisbane, up to 20 people were arrested after similar incidents in the CBD and inner-city Fortitude Valley, ABC Radio said, although police said there was no connection with the Mundine-Green fight.