Paul Kent on Paul Gallen v Justis Huni fight, NRL concussion crackdown

The highlight reels were misleading in their coverage of Paul Gallen and to judge him on only those brief clips is an unfair assessment, PAUL KENT writes.

The pre-fight shots between Justis Huni and Paul Gallen have got very personal.

The highlight reels were misleading in their coverage of Paul Gallen.

They showed him flailing, arms outstretched and awkward. They showed him unbalanced and collapsing under fatigue, his brain going back to its basic learnings until his arms wrap around Justis Huni and he tackles him.

Or it showed him in the moments shortly after, wobbling, the body doing all it could to remain upright, until Huni fired a right hand down the pipe and it put Gallen on the canvas.

To judge what Gallen did on Wednesday night on only those brief clips is an unfair assessment, like peering at the Mona Lisa through a keyhole.

What it did not show was Gallen rising to his feet, his balance a memory, and bravely put his back to the ropes and wait for Huni to come in once more, the matador ready with the sword, until referee John Cauchi said enough was finally enough.

And in that moment, everybody there saw it.

The Huni crowd applauded him at the end. They stood on their feet and acknowledged something uncommon, a man taken beyond his limits but who kept on coming.

And later when the night is over and I think back to what Gallen did and I compare it against everything that is happening in that other sport of his, the NRL, and the argument that is happening, and I wonder how it can continue.

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Justis Huni is congratulated by Paul Gallen after winning their Australian heavyweight title fight at ICC Sydney on June 16, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

For weeks now emails keep dropping in my inbox from readers wondering how I can support the NRL through its concussion crackdown while still covering boxing for Fox Sports.

Some say it with a smugness, like they have discovered something, a hypocrisy. Their tone is one of small victory. Others have a genuine wonder, though, and it is a legitimate question, and the answer is both difficult and also easy to answer.

It is easy to point out that illegal punches are called out in boxing the same as illegal tackles in rugby league, which is the focus of the NRL’s crackdown. Rabbit punches to the back of the head are dangerous and banned in the sport. High tackles in rugby league are also dangerous and banned in the sport.

A foul is a foul, no matter the sport.

But it is getting harder to continue justifying the damage that is done in boxing against the growing medical evidence surrounding concussions.

Years back fading boxers were punch drunk. There was no real medical term, until later when their dementia was labelled dementia pugilistica. There was no link of this to sports like rugby league.

The difference between sports is boxers accept there is an inherent disk of danger when they step into the ring, an understanding that would almost certainly stand up in a law court if a boxer ever it was tested.

The NRL has a whole different responsibility. While many NRL players argue they also accept this inherent risk, and would agree to sign a waiver if asked, the ARL Commission’s duty is to not only run the NRL but rugby league throughout all the junior competitions, from bush footy A-graders to under-6s. They are as responsible for overseeing the administering of all of them.

Pictured are boxers Paul Gallen and Justis Huni in their bout for the Australian Heavyweight Title held at the ICC in Sydney. Picture: Richard Dobson

Concussions have no prejudice for elite footballers, and if the pre-crackdown rules were allowed to continue for the bush footy player, where the risk is not worth the reward, the costs are too high in every area.

It must happen.

And then I watch Gallen on Wednesday night and I give him a real chance before the fight, but then I see the early hand speed of Justis Huni and how Gallen is immediately struggling to combat it.

Gallen wants to fight on Huni’s chest but he is wearing three or four every time he tries to find position.

In the second round Huni hits him in the body and Gallen buckles and the thought is that he might be lucky to make it to the next bell. But this is when it starts with Gallen.

He takes the first backward steps of his life and puts his back against the ropes and brings his gloves up and waits for Huni, and he blocks what he can with his gloves and forearms but a thudding right hand pierces through his guard and whacks Gallen straight in the face. He responds, though.

And sometimes in the third round Huni goes after Gallen again. Nobody knew at the time Huni broke his rib in the second round with that body shot and that every time Gallen moves after that he feels his rib clicking inside his chest.

Paul Gallen after his fight with Justis Huni. Picture: Richard Dobson

And Gallen the next day. Picture: Toby Zerna

Barry Michael, the former IBF super-featherweight champion, has no doubt what he is seeing. “He’s gone, Gallen,” he says, and I nod. He might not make it out of this round.

And then the bell rings and Gallen goes back to his corner and his trainer Graham Shaw puts him back together again, cleaning him up and smearing vaseline over the red patches developing where his face is already scrubbed raw.

And when the minute’s break is over Gallen stands and squares his shoulders and walks out for the next round somehow appearing fresh again.

He would say later that he knew by the sixth he could not win the fight but all he wanted to do after that, without hope of victory, was make the final bell.

It was Rocky. Outclassed but defiant, his victory coming in going the distance.

And so this happens for round after round, only in each round Gallen is slightly weaker than he was in the one before, but with each round he is getting closer to the final bell and I wonder if this man, who has courage beyond any, can make it to the end.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - JUNE 16: Justis Huni knocks Paul Gallen to the canvas during their Australian heavyweight title fight at ICC Sydney on June 16, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

The entire crowd seemed to be thinking the same.

And then after that knockdown in the last round Cauchi stopped the fight and Gallen was walked back to his corner, and there was a minute and 42 seconds left in the fight.

The stoppage is not how Gallen or the fight should be remembered, though.

The fight, in its entirety, was a monument to a man everybody already knew was tough but who, somehow, kept finding something more, and something more, and who was so courageous even when there was nothing left to give.

And when you witness such courage you find what makes you love the sport, despite all common sense.

Some things, you accept, just are.

****

The Aussie swim team are the rightful darlings of Australia’s Olympic campaign. They work too hard not to be, and have long been the muscle in Australia’s medal tally.

Having covered several Olympics, what is happening at the Olympics trials in Adelaide – a stack of world-class times, plus a few world records – is a familiar story with the swimmers.

In recent Games, though, they have failed to transfer those times into Olympic gold, which is what it is all about.

And while the swimmers are heavily protected at the Games from any sort of comment or criticism, I recall a coach at a Games pointing out where we often failed in the pool.

Look, he said. The results were often blamed on poor starts, or a poor turn, or getting their glide into the wall wrong.

Basically, he believed what it came down to was that while the Aussies were training hard and peaking for the Games, other countries were racing against each other and getting race fit.

They were preparing not just for the event but how to deal with the pressure and expectation and then put it out there in their performance, where mistakes in the turn, or the start, or the glide could be catastrophic.

Originally published as Paul Kent on Paul Gallen v Justis Huni fight, NRL concussion crackdown