Ex-NRL star Jarrod Wallace may have landed the first blow on rival Nelson Asofa-Solomona ahead of their Easter Sunday boxing showdown.
The former rugby league enforcers will face off in Wollongong on the undercard of Tim Tszyu\u2019s WBO world title bout against undefeated Middleweight Denis Nurja. <\/p>\n
Despite being the underdog in his pro debut against Asofa-Solomona, Wallace was adamant he could get the better of the bigger man and showed his confidence with a cheeky dig at the former Storm heavyweight\u2019s exit from the Melbourne club.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is big, he\u2019s powerful, I\u2019ve got respect for him, but there are plenty of flaws,\u201d Wallace said. <\/p>\n
\u201cCraig Bellamy has seen it and that\u2019s why they sacked him.\u201d <\/p>\n
When probed for a response, a smiling Asofa-Solomona gave \u201cno comment\u201d. <\/p>\n
Wallace and Asofa-Solomona have traded leather before during an exhibition bout in late 2023. <\/p>\n
On that occasion, Wallace\u2019s corner threw in the towel when Asofa-Solomona put him on the canvas with a thudding uppercut and glancing right hand. <\/p>\n
After exiting the Melbourne Storm at the end of last season, dual premiership winner Asofa-Solomona took up boxing full-time, kicking off his new career with a knock out win over ex-Dragons forward Jeremy Latimore. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a demolition job,\u201d Asofa-Solomona said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really feel once he feels that 10 ounce glove he is going to get the shock of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guarantee it\u2019s going to be a highlight reel finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Undeterred by his prior defeat at the hands of Asofa-Solomona, Wallace promised to take his opponent into deep waters while declaring himself as the fan favourite. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone would love to see me go in and knock him out,\u201d Wallace said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to get him in deep waters, get him in deep rounds and throw. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to throw bombs at each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what everyone wants to see and that\u2019s what heavyweights do.\u201d <\/p>\n
Also on the card, Aussie super bantamweight Sam Goodman will seek a win over Rodrigo Ruiz in a IBF World Title eliminator; and Tokyo Olympian Paulo Aokuso is fighting for his tenth win as a pro against Kittipong Jian Hao Ho. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-NRL star Jarrod Wallace may have landed the first blow on rival Nelson Asofa-Solomona ahead of their Easter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,689,802,5749,284380,75760,2759,9124,8089,224656,255187,75777,25853,2105,284381,279087,211637,12412,4466,673,43961,677,284383,284382,55081,85,5942,4526],"class_list":{"0":"post-580113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-boxing","12":"tag-boxing-bout","13":"tag-boxing-matchformer","14":"tag-boxing-showdown","15":"tag-brutal-sledge","16":"tag-chris-hyde","17":"tag-craig-bellamy","18":"tag-dual-premiership-winner","19":"tag-euan-kennedy","20":"tag-exhibition-bout","21":"tag-fan-favourite","22":"tag-getty-images-inc","23":"tag-highlight-reel-finish","24":"tag-jarrod-wallace","25":"tag-jeremy-latimore","26":"tag-matt-king","27":"tag-melbourne-storm","28":"tag-new-south-wales","29":"tag-newswire-sport","30":"tag-oceania","31":"tag-ounce-glove","32":"tag-rodrigo-ruiz","33":"tag-sam-goodman","34":"tag-sports","35":"tag-tim-tszyu","36":"tag-wollongong"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}