Paul Gallen slams ‘lazy’ Josh Aloiai as 15-minute NRL player ahead of their big fight in Newcastle
What’s a Paul Gallen fight without a round of rancour and a well-aimed sledge or two in the lead-up, but this next one against a current NRL player has hit next level bitterness.
Boxing/MMA
Don't miss out on the headlines from Boxing/MMA. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Paul Gallen has slammed rival Josh Aloiai as a “lazy” athlete who only has 15 minutes of football in him at NRL level.
The extraordinary sledge came after a terse press conference announcing Gallen is fighting Aloiai in a professional boxing match over eight two-minute rounds on December 10 in Newcastle, in which Aloiai promised to “knock his head off”.
Gallen is furious that after initially agreeing to a fight of six rounds by three minutes, Manly Sea Eagles prop Aloiai demanded the rounds be reduced to two minutes, which Gallen relented to last week.
Watch Tim Tszyu vs Takeshi Inoue LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo and Foxtel, Wednesday 17th November from 7pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
“He’s unfit and lazy, it’s reflective in his attitude towards fighting, two-minute rounds is ridiculous,” Gallen said.
“That’s his attitude and honestly, in a game of footy he’s flat out getting through 15 minutes.
“He’s unfit, he’s lazy. That’s what he only wants to fight two-minute rounds.
“The way you live your life, a lot of the time, is how you play your rugby league. He wants to be lazy in this fight, and that’s how he plays rugby league.”
Gallen, a former NSW State of Origin captain and premiership winner with Cronulla, went even further by calling Aloiai “a coward”.
“If he beats me over two-minute rounds, does he really beat me? It’s not a proper fight, that’s why I don’t respect him for this,” Gallen said.
“If it was three-minute rounds I’d shake his hand and say ‘Fair enough, well done mate you’re too good’.
“But fighting the way we’re fighting now, there’s that ‘What if’, always. He is a coward for doing it the way he’s doing it.”
Aloiai is making his professional boxing debut against Gallen, who has amassed an impressive record of 11-1-1 (6KO), with his only defeat coming in his previous bout against Australian heavyweight champion Justis Huni.
However, 25-year-old Aloiai has strong boxing pedigree – his two older brothers were New Zealand national amateur champions while his late father held a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
“However he wants to act leading into it doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to get in there and knock his head off,” Aloiai warned 40-year-old Gallen.
“I’ve got itchy hands already.
“We’re in a really rough part of our training camp at the moment, I’ve spent years in the gym, I’ve been refined by the fire, I’m the gauntlet day in, day out.
“So I know what I can bring to a fight. I know how good Paulie is and what he brings, he will probably be surprised.
“On Instagram Live he made mention of my Pacific Island heritage, my religious beliefs. You’d think they’d be no-go areas.
“He said ‘Only women box two-minute rounds’, we’ve got to respect our females in this sport as well.
“This is my first pro fight, he’s ranked No.54 in the world, this is his 14th pro fight. He knows I’m not a coward, it takes courage to take on someone with that experience and I’m willing to do it.”
Gallen rubbished Aloiai’s claims he’d attacked his Christian religion and Samoan ethnicity.
“When did I mention his faith? Didn’t mention it once, and I said ‘You act like a softly spoken Polynesian’, that’s all I said,” Gallen said.
“Bringing race and religion into it is totally wrong, and what he did up there was totally wrong. I’ve never gone near that, ever.
“I don’t know how he tries to bring that into it, it was the wrong thing to do.
“I think he was mistaken, maybe he was a bit passionate and a bit nervous up there, but he’s really mistaken bringing that up. I haven’t mentioned it once, won’t mention it once, and once he said it, it wasn’t brought up again.
“Even when I brought it up and said it didn’t happen, he didn’t say ‘Yes it did’. He knows it was the wrong thing to say, it’s done now.”
Gallen-Aloiai headlines a revolutionary two-day boxing event held at Newcastle Entertainment Centre on December 9 and 10 put on by No Limit Promotions.
Former world champion Andrew Moloney (21-2, 14KO) will headline the December 9 Thursday night Fox Sports show against Filipino Froilan Saludar (32-4-1, 22KO) for the WBO Oriental super-flyweight title.
Steve Spark and Lenny Zappavigna will also be on that card.
Then on the Friday Main Event pay-per-view show, Olympic Games bronze medallist Harry Garside will make his professional debut against Fijian Sachin Mudaliar (9-1, 1KO).
The main undercard fight will pit controversial NRL star Joseph Leilua against Wests Tigers legend Chris Heighington.
No offence: Tszyu’s blunt message to Kostya’s legacy
With every fight, every training session, every punch thrown, Tim Tszyu is shedding more of expectation’s weight.
Not so much in his own mind as that of the observers who see his father in his face and ring potential.
It was 20 years ago this week that Kostya Tszyu drilled Zab Judah in round two to join Lionel Rose as Australia’s second unified boxing world champion.
His eldest son marked the anniversary by sparring 13 rounds in a steamy inner-Sydney gym; adding one extra to his usual 12 because in the sweet science there are no unlucky numbers, just exposure for shortcuts.
“No offence to dad, but we’ll see where we can go,” Tszyu said.
Approaching his 20th professional fight, and already ranked No.1 by the WBO in the super-welterweight division, Tszyu (19-0, 15KO) is on the verge of matching his father’s feat.
It’s expected that WBA, WBC and IBF champion Jermell Charlo will have a rematch with WBO champion Brian Castano for the unified titles next February, after they drew in their first clash.
With Tszyu being a mandatory challenger, and provided there are no slip-ups against Japanese rival Takeshi Inoue (17-1-1, 10KO) on November 17 at Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena, he would be in prime position to challenge the Charlo-Castano winner for all four belts next year.
What a story it would be for son to emulate father as unified world champion, as rare in boxing as unified scorecards.
“I never really compared myself to dad, I’ve always done it for myself,” Tszyu said.
“But I find it exciting that it‘s so close.
“I’m proud of what dad did, he is a legend and always will be.
“But you know what? The momentum is changing. People won’t be saying, ‘You’re Kostya’s son’. They’ll be coming up to him saying, ‘You’re Tim Tszyu’s dad’. That’s my goal.”
Born with Bentleys in the garage, Tszyu is an anomaly of the sport. The silver spoons have not satiated his appetite, he is as hungry as boxing’s archetype; the starving man reaching beyond poverty via the ring’s riches.
Perhaps the luxury surrounds of his childhood forced him to look for uncomfortable tactics, like the 10-minute icy cold showers he takes every morning to torture his own mind.
“I’ve changed as a person, I’ve become someone who’s just so driven now that nothing can stop me,” Tszyu said.
“And I’m proud of the person that I’ve become, it’s taken a bit of time, but right now I’m in a good state of mind, I value the right things, I know what I want from life and where I’m going.
“You can see the goals you set for yourself within reach, like you can just grab it with your own hands.
“It happened just before the Jeff Horn fight, in the Covid situation, my mind just clicked.
“I started appreciating not just my boxing, but everything in my life, everything that my life has come to, my relationships with people, my relationship with my girlfriend and relationship with my parents.
“Everything has changed around me. The distractions completely disappeared.
“Loyalty around the people that I’ve got around me - I’ve got few friends, a handful of friends, and my family.
“And as much as boxing is a zoo and it’s full of different animals that come in and out, I’ve been able to keep everything so small and tight and loyal, that’s all that matters in life.”
He turned 27 this week, but clearly remembers that historic moment two decades ago, watching from his Rockdale lounge room as dad planted a straight right on Judah’s chin, leaving him legless and stumbling around the ring before being waved off, to become king of the light-welterweight division.
“I was in Year 1, I was just a little kid,” Tszyu said. “I remember running out and trying to find my mum, it was just crazy.
“I got my discipline and mindset from dad. Even right now, I’m trying to teach my brother, my mum, my sister, that characteristic and mindset of discipline to achieve anything, not just in your work, not just in your career, but in life.
“From my mum, I get kindness, softness.”
Tszyu has learned to keep his softer side for those in his circle.
“I remember my first year as a pro (in 2016), reading the comments, and I’d think, ‘People are nasty’,” he said.
“And now, I don’t give a shit. I’ve got no feeling at all.”
Life is good for Tszyu.
He’s moving up to million-dollar paydays. Sponsors and new fans keep rolling in. Each performance silences another critic.
What does Tszyu do to entertain himself outside the gym?
He nods towards his brand new Mercedes Benz.
“I like to drive around in that, I’ve really been enjoying it,” Tszyu said.
“I still drive the orange one too (the 1969 Mustang he purchased as a gift to himself for defeating Horn), on the weekends.
“I just like driving around the city, with a mate, go for coffee – they’ve got cars too so we just get together and check out each others’ cars and talk crap.
“Then we’ll go to the sauna.”
Yet Tszyu’s ruthlessness only gathers more steam.
Instead of fighting the winner of Charlo-Castano for all the marbles, Tszyu said he’d prefer fighting both for their individual belts, while also taking out the division’s big guns like Magomed Kurbanov, Jarrett Hurd and Tony Harrison.
It starts with Inoue.
“I want to take them all out, one by one, so there’s no more talk - put a nice little full stop on the super-welterweight division,” Tszyu said.
“And then, on to the next.”
Anthem drama erupts amid boxing farce
Middleweight king Janibek Alimkhanuly’s title defence against Andrei Mikhailovich in Sydney has been rocked by farcical scenes.
‘Punishment for what he did’: Janibek makes brave Kiwi pay
Friday night’s world title fight descended into a farce before the bell rung, but despite the wrong national anthem being played for middleweight world champion Janibek Alimkhanuly, the Kazakh king took care of business.