Lucas Browne v Paul Gallen: Big heavyweight contest set for Wollongong on April 21

The bad blood between heavyweight rivals Lucas Browne and Paul Gallen continues ahead of their much-anticipated showdown in April as drug testing again took centre stage.

Lucas Browne wants mandatory drug testing done in his fight against Paul Gallen, believing the former NRL star will “be on something”.

Gallen called for drug-testing for the fight last weekend, given Browne’s previous scandals, but the former WBA world heavyweight champion has hit back given Gallen’s own taint in the Cronulla Sharks peptide controversy.

“I’ve got no problem with the testing and I actually encourage it because I think he’s going to be on something,” Browne told News Corp.

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Lucas Browne is the only Aussie to hold a world heavyweight title.

“I hope the testing happens, I want it to happen.”

Gallen (10-0-1, 5KO) will fight Browne (29-2, 25KO) in a six-round fight in Wollongong on April 21.

Browne won the WBA title by knocking out Ruslan Chagaev in 2016, the first and only Australian to hold a major heavyweight title.

However, he was stripped of the belt after allegedly testing positive to Clenbuterol. Browne fought the charge and the decision was overturned so he was reinstated with the belt.

But Browne’s second positive test for a different substance months later is one he takes responsibility for.

“I was done over hard for the world title. I was tested three days before in Chechnya and was completely clear, so why would I smuggle clenbuterol into Russia and Chechnya to take it for a fight that I know I’m going to be tested?” Browne said.

“I paid for the testing myself. I thought ‘I’m going into this country, I want to pay for the testing’, so why would I take something knowing that?

Lucas Browne beat Julius Long on the Gold Coast back in late 2018.

“They cleared me obviously, which was great.

“The second time I got done was just my stupidity. I went to a supplement shop and said ‘Give me the best pre-workout you’ve got’. Obviously it had banned substances in it, so I looked like the biggest idiot on the planet, and I can take that because I did it to myself, it’s no one else’s fault.

“But now it looks like I’m a two-time drug cheat for really not doing anything, I haven’t cheated whatsoever.

“Ever since the world title, I’ve hooked up with the WBC’s clean boxing program, so I have to tell them where I am at all times, and they can literally turn up at my door at any time and test me, and they have done since, and I’ve been clean since.”

Browne wants to cash in on the money being earned in boxing by former footballers like Gallen and Barry Hall.

“They’re getting paid something like $400,000 and my biggest payday in Australia was $25,000, and my world title was only $250,000 and that was before percentages, so I only took half of that home,” Browne said.

“These guys are doing four two-minute rounds and getting double what I got for a world title, so I wanted to be part of that action.

Paul Gallen proved too strong for Mark Hunt back in December.

“I was supposed to fight in Vegas in March last year, and two weeks before it all turned to crap with COVID, so I thought I’ll clean out Australia, Gallen is first on the list and then I’ve got Justis Huni in July.”

Browne will be paid $130,000 for this fight, while Gallen is expected to receive more than $400,000.

The bad blood between the pair has been simmering for months.

“I think he’s just a d---, you look at Anthony Mundine and it was his way of promoting a fight and that’s his thing,” Browne said.

“When I started to box, the one thing I didn’t want to be was Anthony Mundine, that person. Whether he got the money or not, I didn’t want to walk around the streets and be the hated person.

“That’s Gallen’s way of doing it, I’ve got a lot of fans in the UK who say ‘I’ve never heard of this guy but what a d---head’. It’s who he is. It works for him and sells fights.”

Originally published as Lucas Browne v Paul Gallen: Big heavyweight contest set for Wollongong on April 21