highly controversial decision<\/a>, the former Sharks premiership winner declared nothing would get him back in the ring. <\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m just so happy it\u2019s over. That\u2019s it, that\u2019s my sporting career done,\u201d Gallen told news.com.au and fellow reporters in the post-fight media scrum. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really relieved it\u2019s over and have come away with a victory, which is what we intended to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet not even two years later, Gallen again has come out of retirement, much to the dismay of his wife Anne, who he said is \u201cnot happy\u201d about it.<\/p>\n
Gallen has again insisted this will be the final time he steps into the ring and said the \u201csole motivation\u201d behind his return is one final payday to set his family up for life.<\/p>\n
\u201cNah, she\u2019s not happy. She\u2019s not happy at all,\u201d Gallen told AAP about his wife\u2019s thoughts on him fighting again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s my job as a bloke. It\u2019s my role in the relationship. I provide for my family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to give my family a life I never had, and that\u2019s my sole motivation. That\u2019s what I\u2019m here for: to look after them, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as more and more retired league stars learn they are suffering from serious brain damage accumulated from repeated head knocks, Anne understandably doesn\u2019t want her husband to risk any more damage. <\/p>\n
After a bruising 19-year NRL career and 19 boxing fights, Gallen has taken plenty of damage.<\/p>\n
But Gallen says he\u2019s done numerous brain scans and consulted with medical specialists before deciding to fight again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done everything I can to ensure I\u2019m in a good spot,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople talk about CTE. I\u2019ve heard former footy players talk about it. But you do not know you\u2019ve got CTE until you\u2019re dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s promised his Mrs, he will be done for good after taking on Big Nelson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the third time I\u2019m coming out of retirement now. Hopefully I get through this one and hope no one else calls me out,\u201d Gallen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been tested, I\u2019ve been scanned. There\u2019s no way a doctor\u2019s going to say, \u2018yeah, you can still fight\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been told I\u2019m in a good spot and after this fight I\u2019ll get tested again.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the fight, Gallen says he has a score to settle with the Melbourne premiership winner, who he says he helped get a start in the fight game with No Limit Boxing. <\/p>\n
Gallen says he\u2019d told him he was retired on numerous occasions and was angered by the fact he kept calling him out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told him I was done. I told him I was finished,\u201d Gallen continued. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe wasn\u2019t calling out Curtis Scott. He\u2019s not calling out Junior Paulo. They\u2019re footy players. They\u2019re younger. I\u2019m 45. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe keeps bringing up my name after the fact because he knows I didn\u2019t want to do this anymore. I\u2019m going to smash his face in.\u201d <\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018She\u2019s not happy\u2019:\u00a0Paul Gallen\u2019s wife fumes as star comes out of retirement to fight Nelson Asofa-Solomona<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Gallen\u2019s wife is reportedly fuming that the former NRL star is returning to the boxing ring to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[408101,387251,511121,460788,511104,21023,419287,400064,511111,511110,423157,511122,511097,511119,511098,391196,385334,441433,4764,148628,511123,64,63,511095,30766,187806,511109,511126,511099,511096,688,511105,39598,28791,177935,511125,380017,376761,511115,378779,378245,511108,511117,4536,8280,457178,511107,8844,378592,386826,381854,459218,511118,511113,761,762,75778,381654,51485,130278,390913,397038,378770,158,511103,499230,511106,2821,1861,46677,483231,1793,511114,511100,85,4031,670,511101,511120,431091,431031,485126,379398,347190,511112,384428,390147,511116,511124,511102,245701,2974,478907,387051,380192,100843],"class_list":["post-944036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-s-thoughts","tag-s-wife","tag-s-wife-fumes","tag-16-months","tag-19-boxing-fights","tag-21023","tag-a-victory","tag-a-bloke","tag-a-bruising-19-year-nrl-career","tag-a-decade-long-score","tag-a-doctor","tag-a-good-spot","tag-a-heavyweight-boxing-clash","tag-a-heavyweight-showdown","tag-a-highly-controversial-decision","tag-a-life","tag-a-score","tag-a-start","tag-aap","tag-anne","tag-any-more-damage","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-big-nelson","tag-cte","tag-curtis-scott","tag-damage-but","tag-elson-asofa-solomona","tag-even-two-years","tag-fellow-reporters","tag-footy-players","tag-former-footy-players","tag-friday","tag-gallen","tag-her-husband","tag-his-20th-professional-bout","tag-his-face","tag-his-family","tag-his-mrs","tag-his-return","tag-his-wife","tag-his-wife-anne","tag-it-gallen","tag-junior-paulo","tag-life","tag-medical-specialists","tag-more-and-more-retired-league-stars","tag-move","tag-my-family","tag-my-job","tag-my-name","tag-my-role","tag-my-sole-motivation","tag-my-sporting-career","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nelson-asofa-solomona","tag-news-com-au","tag-next-week","tag-no-limit-boxing","tag-no-one-else","tag-no-way","tag-not-everyone","tag-nrl","tag-numerous-brain-scans","tag-numerous-occasions","tag-one-final-payday","tag-paul-gallen","tag-people","tag-plenty","tag-repeated-head-knocks","tag-retirement","tag-serious-brain-damage","tag-sonny-bill-williams-after","tag-sports","tag-star","tag-sydney","tag-that-bout","tag-the-sole-motivation","tag-the-45-year-old","tag-the-boxing-ring","tag-the-dismay","tag-the-fact","tag-the-fight","tag-the-fight-game","tag-the-final-time","tag-the-former-nrl-star","tag-the-former-sharks-premiership-winner","tag-the-melbourne-premiership-winner","tag-the-post-fight-media-scrum","tag-the-relationship","tag-the-ring","tag-the-third-time","tag-this-fight","tag-this-one","tag-younger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944036","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=944036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}