Paul Gallen has unloaded on opponent Josh Aloiai, saying he was embarrassed to be fighting two-minute rounds in their upcoming pay-per-view bout.
After plenty of back and forth, the pair eventually settled on eight two-minute rounds, not six three-minute rounds which Gallen had wanted.
The Sea Eagles prop said the fight, which takes place in Newcastle on December 10, would still have plenty of time.
“I don’t think it’s going to go the distance,” Aloiai said.
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Gallen took a few cheeky digs at Aloiai, who largely took the high road.
“I don’t think he’s a good footy player at all, nah. He’s got a job to do in a team, that’s about it,” Gallen said.
“We were talking about contracts the other day Oshay, didn’t you walk out on the Wests Tigers?”
After the 2020 season, Aloiai requested an immediate release to join the Sea Eagles and told club chief executive Justin Pascoe “he will never wear the jersey again”.
“Contracts are worth about as much as the paper they’re written on, you know that,” Gallen said.
“This eight two-minute round contract doesn’t mean too much. I’m happy to come over there and shake your hand on three-minute rounds if you want to do that.”
It will be Gallen’s 14th professional fight, with a current record of 11-1-1.
“It’s embarrassing,” he said.
“If you’re so good and you’ve got so much experience, why are we fighting two minute rounds for?”
Aloiai shot back that everyone was bored of talking about the format of the fight.
“Everyone here’s clocked off, they’re on their phones,” he said.
The 25-year-old said he was happy to get such a big fight in his professional debut.
“Initially I thought that I wouldn’t get the Gallen fight straight away,” Aloiai said.
“When they offered it, I was ready for it. It doens’t bother me too much either way whether it was the long route or the short one, which it is now. I really thought we were going to clash at some point, why not now?”
Aloiai was relatively diplomatic on the subject of trash talk.
“He can be respectful, he can be disrespectful leading up to it. Once we get in there, I’ll be in there to knock his head off.”
Aloiai praised his “courageous” opponent for stepping into the ring with Justis Huni, although did criticise him for his strategy in the later rounds.
“He just went into survival mode and tried to get through the rounds, he kind of stopped going after the win.”