Barry Hall believes Sonny Bill Williams’ star-studded overseas training camp shows “weakness” in the latest verbal blow before Wednesday’s clash of the codes grudge match in Sydney.
Dual code champion Williams tuned up for his ninth professional fight with a six week trip to the United Kingdom and Ireland, rubbing shoulders and trading punches with some of the best in the business.
Williams was invited into world champion Tyson Fury’s inner sanctum where he also trained under gun coach Andy Lee and alongside Kiwi stars Joseph Parker and David Nyika.
TURF WAR: Sonny Bill Williams vs Barry Hall, live and exclusive on Stan Event, March 23. Purchase the event now at stan.com.au/event
The 36-year-old body sparred against Fury and Parker and Lee also took him out of his comfort zone for no-holds barred sparring sessions against the likes of European champion Tommy McCarthy and the well regarded Nick Campbell.
“Him going and training with all those people is fine, that’s OK, he can train with whoever he wants,” Hall told Wide World of Sports.
“But it’s going to be me and him in there. That’s what I’ve focused on, I’ve got a solid team that I’ve put the trust in to tick off all the boxes for this camp.
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“We’ve chosen to stay that way, I didn’t feel the need to go overseas and change trainers and do these sorts of things. Some people might see it as a strength, I actually see it as a weakness to be perfectly honest.
“I’m with my same team, doing my same thing and I’ve put trust in them that what they can provide for me is going to be enough to do the job.”
Hall’s promoter is former world champion Danny Green and the AFL legend also made time for a training session with UFC sensation Alexander Volkanovski last week.
“The prep’s going really well, no injuries which is great. I’m fit, doing the rounds at a pretty good pace,” he said.
Hall said he had done his best to tune out the external chatter leading up to fight week but after speaking with Volkanovski wanted to embrace the pageantry on the night.
“There’s been a bit going around but I haven’t really taken too much notice of it. It’s all about us at the moment and all that white noise is exactly that,” Hall said.
“It doesn’t affect what’s going to happen.
“I’ve been sparring a couple of guys who have body shapes similar to Sonny.
“You’re never going to emulate Sonny as an athlete but they’ve been really good.”
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