Paul Gallen slams Justin Hodges for backflipping on agreement ahead of final fight
Paul Gallen has ridiculed opponent Justin Hodges for backflipping on a key agreement as he prepares for his final fight.
Paul Gallen and Justin Hodges will fight over a boxing first of two and a half minute rounds — a decision that the former NSW captain has slammed.
Ahead of the final fight of his career on November 23, Gallen has ridiculed opponent Justin Hodges for backflipping on an agreement to fight over three-minute rounds.
“He’s not a man of his word because he agreed to fight over three-minute rounds after our last fight,’’ Gallen said of Hodges.
“But now he’s happy to fight over two and a half minute rounds, which shows how much he’s shitting himself to fight for another 30-seconds.
“How embarrassing for him.
“Most people would think he’s taking the softest option possible. It’s a soft attitude and he knows it.’’
Gallen, a two-time Australian heavyweight title challenger, had been lobbying for the fight to remain at three-minute rounds given the pair agreed while in the ring following their initial September showdown in Brisbane, going so far as to threaten to pull out of the fight if his terms were not met.
However, Hodges and his trainer Adam Copland argued letting the fight, to be held at the ICC in Sydney, go over would actually be far more disrespectful to fight fans.
“They want to see them knock each other’s heads off,” Copland said.
“So we actually think it’s disrespectful to all those who pay their hard-earned money if we go to threes and it becomes a boring fight.
Gallen is no stranger to making history in the ring having followed in the footsteps of Australia’s first ever world champion, Albert ‘Young Griffo’ Griffiths, when he fought twice on the same night in a feat not witnessed in Australia for more than 130 years.
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