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<\/p>\n
Set to headline Matchroom Boxing\u2019s return to The Star Gold Coast on Wednesday night, the heavyweights needed little encouragement before the verbal jabs started flying.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s never been past the second round,\u201d said Savage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIm going to touch that chin. I\u2019m going to touch him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s ending with a knockout. It\u2019s not going the distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlint Michigan, we here!\u201d<\/p>\n
Teremoana, who has mowed through each of his first 11 professional opponents, barely cracked a smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who has come to fight me hasn\u2019t made it out of two rounds,\u201d said the big Aussie Olympian.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the only guy who has made it out of two rounds ran like a cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome the fight you\u2019re going to get put down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American fired back: \u201cDon\u2019t run from me! I\u2019m going to get ya.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teremoana and Savage went head to head.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Teremoana said Savage needed to back up his words on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s see if you can actually handle the fire because nobody has been able to so far,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fought the best in the amateurs and basically nobody was able to make it out of the first round. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve fought your American fella who represented at the US International and he couldn\u2019t make it out of the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was exactly like you, talking a lot of smack.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American wasn\u2019t impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t call me Savage for nothing!\u201d he warned<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got another 48 hours!\u201d<\/p>\n
While Teremoana and Savage were busy promising to knock each other\u2019s heads off, Savage\u2019s trainer, Tony Harrison, had a rather different approach to proceedings \u2013 bringing the laughs.<\/p>\n
The former world champ had the room grinning as he told stories about his rough flight to Australia.<\/p>\n
Harrison has also been part of the Australian boxing story before, having faced Tim Tszyu in 2023, when Tszyu stopped him in the ninth round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a middle seat on that plane and now we are going to take it out on Teremoana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I\u2019m mad! I\u2019m pissed!<\/p>\n
\u201cI told Dre, punch Teremoana in his mouth because I was in that middle seat.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Got the size, got the power!” | 00:22<\/p>\n
Elsewhere on the card, the Aussie bad boy of boxing Michael Zerafa spoke about his debut fight with Matchroom against dangerous puncher Alejandro Ortiz.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to go in there and make a statement,\u201d said Zerafa.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s levels to this game and he\u2019s not at my level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ortiz, who spoke little English, did make it clear that Zerafa would be getting knocked out on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
To that Zerafa grinned wryly.<\/p>\n
\u201c35 have tried and 35 fell short,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
\u201cBut good luck to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t fought anybody like me\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dream is to be a world champion.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Zerafa\u2019s world-title ambitions weren\u2019t the only storyline to emerge from the press conference.<\/p>\n
Johnson v Thorslund: Fight Highlights | 09:04<\/p>\n
Harrison appeared to have another fight on his mind beyond Wednesday\u2019s main event.<\/p>\n
The former world champion made it clear he would be interested in sharing the ring with Zerafa.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to make this show about me,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey Mike, we had conversations, say it with your chest. Say what we\u2019ve been talking about. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you\u2019ll fight me, I said I\u2019ll fight you.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Mike shook hands. We\u2019ve crossed the T\u2019s, all Eddie has to do is dot the I\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n
But before the potential matchup could gather too much momentum, Matchroom boss Eddie Hearn was quick to apply the brakes. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it\u2019s not a done deal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re cornering first. You\u2019ve got this big guy first.<\/p>\n
\u201cTony is a great fighter and Wednesday is about making a statement. But beyond that\u2026 Harrison, Eubank \u2013 all the names at middleweight are available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison fired back at Hearn: \u201cHey Eddie, has anybody ever told you you should have been a car salesman?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could sell water to a f**ing whale.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s your accent\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cYou make Teremoana sound like Hercules. You make Mike Z sound like Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the man. You are the best promoter because you do a good job selling bulls**t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The respect lasted all of about five minutes. Australia\u2019s heavyweight wrecking ball Teremoana Teremoana and American knockout artist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-849979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849979","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=849979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}