Kangaroos Divided Over Gallen vs Asofa-Solomona Fight

The Kangaroos are supposed to be thinking about Samoa. Tonight, many of them will be thinking about Paul Gallen and Nelson Asofa-Solomona instead.

On the eve of Australia’s World Cup semi-final, the national squad is split almost down the middle over who walks out of the TikTok Entertainment Centre with heavyweight bragging rights – and, potentially, a $1 million bounty. Some players have even offered to walk the fighters to the ring. This is no quiet sideshow. It’s a crossover event that’s grabbed the dressing room.

Kangaroos camp divided

Latrell Mitchell lit the fuse earlier in the week, jumping on Instagram inside the Kangaroos’ camp and asking teammates for their picks. The responses came thick and fast. Gallen edged it: nine votes to four.

Reece Walsh and Cam Murray didn’t just tip the former NSW captain – they put a round on it. Both predicted Gallen would finish his towering rival in the fourth, trusting the old warhorse’s engine and ring nous to drag the giant into deep water and drown him there.

Bradman Best leads another cluster in the Gallen corner, hanging their faith on experience. This is a 45-year-old who has already gone rounds with Justis Huni, Mark Hunt and Lucas Browne. He’s been outgunned on paper plenty of times and still found a way to stay upright and dangerous.

Not everyone in green and gold sees it that way.

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui planted his flag on the other side without blinking. “Big Nasty, the uso, gonna smash him,” the Kangaroos forward declared.

Harry Grant and Cam Munster, both close to Asofa-Solomona from their Melbourne Storm days, are firmly in his camp too, as is Isaah Yeo. For them, loyalty and sheer physical menace outweigh Gallen’s years of ring craft.

Mitchell, meanwhile, is understood to be leading a small group of Aussies keen to be there in person, with late chatter that some players might even join the ring walks. Tim Tszyu and Liam Paro will also be ringside, adding more star wattage to a night already heavy with subplots.

‘The guy thinks he’s Muhammad Ali’

Gallen, as ever, hasn’t missed the chance to stir the pot.

The NSW Origin great has taken one last swing at Asofa-Solomona in the build-up, accusing the 140kg enforcer of trying to imitate Muhammad Ali during their face-offs.

“Every time we face off, he’s been coming up with some sort of rhyme,” Gallen said. “The other day it was something about beating me in three, it seems he’s really big on them at the moment. The guy thinks he’s Muhammad Ali.”

The size and reach gulf? Gallen shrugs it off like another jab he’s seen a thousand times.

“I’ve survived at 5’10’’ for 25 years,” he said of a career spent colliding with men bigger than him. Growing up in western Sydney, he insists, meant running into plenty of Nelson types – “big guys who’ve been very tough for small amounts of time”.

“That’s Nelson,” Gallen continued. “Because while he may be big and strong, I know that when push comes to shove, and he really gets tested, he won’t be there. And that’s why I’m going to be constantly harassing him. On him like a rash.”

His camp backs that confidence. Justin Lang, the Shire exercise physiologist who has overseen Gallen’s conditioning for years, is adamant age won’t betray him under the lights.

“Right now, Gal would be less than eight per cent off what was his mark at his peak,” Lang said. “He’s just unrelenting. He also has a mindset that his competitors don’t … it’s why he wins more often than not.”

Fifteen years older, giving away height, reach and natural mass, Gallen is still being painted by his own corner as the one man who simply refuses to go away.

NAS brings knockout power – and a grudge list

Across the ring stands a man his own team believe can end it all with a single punch.

Fox Sports Australia has learned that Asofa-Solomona flattened a sparring partner in camp with a savage straight right. The shot was so clean, so heavy, that his inner circle is now quietly tipping the same punch to finish Gallen.

The Storm wrecking ball is carrying more than just power into this fight. He says he’s also carrying stories.

When he faced the media, Asofa-Solomona claimed that a number of Gallen’s former teammates and colleagues had slipped into his DMs, urging him to knock the ex-Cronulla captain out.

“There’s been so many people jumping in my DMs,” he said. “People who’ve played with Gal, people who’ve played against him, even people who have worked with him in the past.

“They’ve been telling me all these stories about him. Saying ‘yeah, bro, like please do a job on him’ …”

Pressed on the nature of those tales, the former New Zealand Test prop hinted at money disputes and long memories.

“I can’t say too much, [but] it’s stuff to do with money. Bits and pieces. He’s just grown up in a different area. Is a different cat. And now the new era is here.”

Asked if those messages really came from ex-Cronulla and NSW Origin players, Asofa-Solomona just grinned. “They’re the only two teams he’s played for...”

The subtext is clear: for NAS, this is more than a novelty bout. It’s a chance to flatten a symbol of the old guard.

Drama on the undercard

The build-up hasn’t been smooth everywhere.

Lightweight prospect Ahmad Reda and opponent Jake Wyllie will still square off after a late weight scare threatened to blow their fight apart. Wyllie originally hit the scales at 63.18kg – almost 2kg over the limit – prompting Reda to label the miss “embarrassing” and vow to knock him out anyway.

No Limit boss George Rose salvaged the contest with a new agreement: both fighters had to weigh in again on Friday morning, with Wyllie capped at 67.6kg. He made the mark, the bout was saved, and an anticipated clash stays on the main card.

The full line-up now reads:

• Prelims (from 5pm on Kayo Sports and Fox Sports) Kya Sparks vs Zidane Tavares Alex Naman vs Zain Adams Jayden Fadel vs Rajesh Kumar
• Main Card (from 7pm on Kayo Sports and Main Event) Paul Gallen vs Nelson Asofa-Solomona – Heavyweight (5 rounds) Callum Peters vs Juan Diego Ortiz – Middleweight (10 rounds) Ahmad Reda vs Jake Wyllie – Lightweight (10 rounds) Paulo Aokuso vs Mobin Khahrazeh – Light Heavyweight (10 rounds) Blair Geraghty vs Peter Lee – Super Lightweight (6 rounds)

Old warrior vs new monster

So it comes to this: Gallen, the 45-year-old ironman who built a career on outlasting and outworking everyone in front of him, against Asofa-Solomona, the 140kg “Big Nasty” with a straight right that can switch off the lights in an instant.

Most of the Kangaroos are backing the old warrior. Some of his former comrades, if NAS is to be believed, are quietly begging the big man to end him.

One way or another, by the time the national side runs out for that World Cup semi-final, they’ll know whether the last great gamble of Paul Gallen’s fighting life ended with another stubborn stand – or under the weight of a punch his own teammates have been whispering about all week.