Fight fans have slammed the upcoming boxing match between NRL hard men George Burgess and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, calling it a "clown show" and accusing Burgess of being badly out of shape.
The pair held a heated and at times bizarre weigh-in for their Wednesday night fight in Brisbane, with Asofa-Solomona asking Burgess if he was "ready to die in the ring."
Asofa-Solomona has already won both of his professional fights by knockout, while Burgess is making his ring debut. The bout sits on the undercard of Australian boxer Liam Paro's world title fight against Lewis Croker.
Gladiator helmet stunt
Asofa-Solomona arrived at the weigh-in wearing a replica of the helmet Russell Crowe's character wore in Gladiator, a dig at Burgess, who knows the Hollywood star from their time together at South Sydney and from working with him on the new mixed martial arts film Beast.
Fans react online
Many fight fans were unimpressed and predicted the fight would be a farce. "Seen grass growing be more entertaining," one wrote on Instagram. Another called it a "joke of a fight and arguably a disgrace to PPV buyers," referring to the bout being sold on pay per view through Foxtel and its streaming service, Kayo.
Other comments included "completely sad," "this s**t is so cringe now," and "circus with clowns." One fan wrote: "This is doing more damage than good for Australian boxing, imagine paying $60 for a world title boxing card and have a four-round co-main, with a guy on debut and another on his 3rd fight, absolute joke."
Burgess's weight questioned
Others focused on Burgess's apparent lack of fitness. He weighed in at 135.84kg, far above the roughly 120kg he carried during his playing days with the South Sydney Rabbitohs. "Burgess won't get past the first round, too unfit," one fan wrote.
Asofa-Solomona questions preparation
Asofa-Solomona has also criticized Burgess's preparation, claiming he has smelled of alcohol and cigarettes at previous meetings to promote the fight. The former Melbourne Storm forward accused Burgess of refusing to release any footage of his boxing training.
"There's absolutely no video of him," Asofa-Solomona said earlier this week. "There was some video maybe of him shadow boxing from a month ago. But otherwise, nothing. No footage of him sparring, on the heavy bag. Deep down, the fact he isn't putting any footage out there, it's telling, and suggests he probably isn't about it."
Asofa-Solomona said he is worried Burgess might pull out of the bout. "Honestly, I just hope he turns up, and doesn't turn up drunk," he said.
Burgess fires back
Burgess responded by criticizing Asofa-Solomona for failing to improve as a boxer despite training full-time for the sport since he quit the NRL last October. "Nelson has supposedly gone full-time with this boxing switch, is training every day," Burgess said. "I thought we would've seen improvements in his footwork, in his defence, even improvements generally. I know he's got heavy punches.. but if he really wants to take this seriously, and wants to make a career of boxing, he needs to work on the other parts of his game as well."
