By Gavin Stone

Anthony Mundine defeated Sam Soliman by way of knock-out in the ninth round to claim the WBA super-middleweight world title in Sydney on Wednesday night.

Mundine, who scored a controversial win on points against Soliman in their only previous bout in 2001, was too strong for Soliman with a supreme display of aggression and punch combinations.

The fight started closely and much to the surprise of many with Mundine being the stalker and Soliman sniping from the outside. Late in round two Mundine caught Soliman with a flush right hand which dropped ‘The King’ down for the count. Soliman rose to see out the round but was made to look second rate-despite displaying tremendous courage and heart- up until round nine when Mundine had Soliman down again and referee Stanley Christodoulou intervened at the 2:26 mark.

The fight was expected to last the entire 12 rounds and be decided on a round-by-round points decision, but Mundine delivered on his promise before the bout to unleash "the new Man, the real Man" and to enjoy "defeating him comfortably like no man has".

It was a definitive and impressive performance by the 31-year-old Australian, who erased the doubts raised by his contentious split decision win over the same fighter five-and-a-half years ago.

Mundine was delighted to win his second world title.

"I told you I was the best," Mundine said.

"I knocked his arse out, I'm allowed to be cocky because if he would have knocked my arse down he would have been cocky, that's the name of the game, that's the sport."

By defeating Soliman in such impressive fashion Mundine has showed up American Roland ‘Winky’ Wright- universally recognised as the number two pound for pound fighter in the world- by doing what he couldn’t do in stopping Soliman.

"I'm looking to reign, I want to go down to middleweight and reign at middleweight and then see what the future holds for me," Mundine said.

Soliman said he got caught with a good shot in the second round.

"He caught me with a great right hand and I didn't come back from the punch," Soliman said.

"I know that I'll come back again strong, I promise you, I'm a great Aussie battler."