Giants of Australian boxing and rugby league are set to collide with Paul Gallen about to step into the ring with Lucas Browne after an 11th-hour $300 Uber ride saved the half-a million dollar heavyweight clash from imploding.
Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne is the $1.51 favourite to dispose of Paul ‘Insert Derogatory Nickname Here’ Gallen who is the ranked outsider at $2.45 but odds are it will be brutal no matter who wins at the WIN Entertainment Centre in Wollongong.
The hardmen, two of the most polarising in their respective sporting arenas, have torn strips off each other in the lead up while arguing over the brand of gloves, size of their pay packets, a pre-fight drug test and even who has taken more drugs.
The first – a footy enforcer-turned prize fighter – is out to prove he is the real deal after knockers questioned the caliber of his opponents and if he wins could secure a $2 million bout against Aussie star Justis Huni at Suncorp Stadium.
The second – a former heavyweight champ who once risked being shot after contemplating throwing a punch at a Chechen dictator during his title shot in 2016 – wants to rehabilitate his faltering career.
Paul Gallen and Lucas Browne posing for a photo after a weigh-in at the Novotel Hotel in Wollongong ahead of their bout on Wednesday night
Browne, 42, will wear a special set of 10-ounce Everlast gloves after an official from the sporting goods manufacturer in an Uber was tasked with ferrying him the mitts after he failed to fit his paws into XL and XXL pairs he was supplied four weeks out.
‘This might be the start of my bare-knuckle career, you never know,’ he joked ahead of the bout.
Gallen, 37, suggested complaints over the gloves were a ‘ploy’ to gain an advantage and immediately turned down his opponent’s push to wear MX gloves made from Mexican leather with limited padding which would assist his big hitting.
The stand-off threatened to derail the fight but boxing promoter and former featherweight Ben Damon was pictured on Twitter on Wednesday with two pairs of Everlast gloves that had been sent from Geelong to Melbourne to Sydney before being placed in and Uber and driven to Wollongong to save the bout.
Gallen will pocket $450,000 while Browne will walk away with $230,00 for the clash which is set for six three-minute rounds
Gallen, who played more than 400 rugby league games for the Cronulla Sharks, NSW and Australia before turning into a prized fighter and claimed a blockbuster win over UFC destroyer Mark Hunt in December, will pocket $450,000.
‘I’ve just done what I had to do to get to where I am. He has done the same thing but he’s jealous of guys like me coming in and making a dollar,’ Gallen told WWOS after Browne complained about his earnings.
Browne, a former WBA heavyweight champion who shocked the world when he stopped Ruslan Chagaev in Chechnya in 2016, will walk away with $230,00 but will forfeit $100,000 to another promoter after a contract dispute.
‘What I don’t like is the fact that they (footballers) get paid 10 times more than what a boxer actually would. All these boys up the front here (at this week’s press conference) – they’re not getting paid big dollars,’ Browne said.
Former boxer Will Tomlinson poses with the Everlast gloves that have been rushed to Lucas Browne for his clash with Paul Gallen
Browne was stripped off his world title in 2016 and failed two drugs tests after the muscle and bone strengthening substance Ostarine was found in his system but still had the audacity of referring to Gallen as ‘Peptide Paul’.
Gallen captained the Cronulla Sharks during their infamous 2011 peptide scandal when he and 15 teammates plead guilty to unwittingly taking banned substances but said he won’t take to the ring on Wednesday unless there was a drug test.
No Limit Boxing Promoter Matt Rose said drug testing would be mandatory before the blockbuster fight.
‘Given Browne has tested positive twice before we understand why Gallen has been adamant that testing be conducted and we’re doing everything we can to guarantee that will happen,’ he told Fox Sports.
Gallen, who weighed in at 102.20kg, said he was not afraid of toing toe-to-toe with the more fancied Browne who tipped the scales at 117.08kg and has an extra 7′ in reach.
‘Everyone said Mark Hunt was going to kill me. A lot of people are saying this bloke’s going to kill me,’ he said after critics had panned him for his choice of opponents.
‘It’s just a bit rich, people saying, ‘Why doesn’t he have a real go?’
Browne with Chechnya’s Ramzan Kadyrov in 2016 ahead of his shock win over Ruslan Chagaev for the WBA title
Browne is hoping to draw on his extensive boxing history (29-2, 25KO) including his shock win in 2016 against Chagaev where the pre-fight promotion was almost more deadly than the bout.
Just days before he crossed paths with Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen politician currently serving as the Head of the Chechen Republic.
Kadyrov laced up the gloves and stepped into the ring for a sparring session before posing for a photo with Browne.
‘We took a photo, and he basically just went ‘bang’ and punched me in the stomach as hard as he could. I wasn’t ready for it,’ he recalled to Sporting News.
‘I asked my minder – my armed guard – ‘if I had done anything, what would’ve happened?’
‘He goes, ‘we’d shoot you.’