It has been one of the most hyped fights of the year, however now it has taken a quick turn and become a hate-fueled rivalry.
Paul Gallen vs Justis Huni is set for Wednesday night and the two Aussie boxers have been caught up in a war of words ahead of their bout in Sydney.
While this could be the biggest fight of Gallen’s boxing career, the clash is just another step in Huni’s preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Huni is the heavy favourite, however former NRL star Gallen isn’t going to make it easy, stating in a press conference that he is going to “break” Huni in order to ruin his dreams of competing at the Olympics.
“I’m here to do everything I can to make sure you don’t go to the Olympics," Gallen said.
“Whether its break your jaw, break your face, break your arm ... I don’t care what it is, I’m going to do everything I can to break something in you so you don’t go to the Olympics.
“That dream since you’ve been seven years old, is going to be f**.”
Despite the big talk, Gallen did admit to Andrew Voss that he has had to go extra lengths to prepare for this fight, with Huni a "different prospect" to anyone he's ever faced.
“It’s been a short preparation,” Gallen said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“Seven weeks ago I was fighting Lucas Browne so this fight has come around very very quickly.
“Thankfully that fight went really quickly, I wasn’t hurt.
“I didn’t have anything wrong with me so there wasn’t any recovery time needed.
“This is a different prospect altogether,
“(With) guys like Mark Hunt and Lucas Browne, we’d go to the gym, get four or five guys and spar one round each so they were as fresh as they could possibly be to try and knock me out.
“But this guy is a different kettle of fish, he’s a boxer, he’s fast, he’s got that skill.
“So it has been harder to get sparring for this guy, we’ve had to fly guys in from Melbourne and a couple from Queensland to do it.
“So the preparation has been different, but without a doubt I’ve done as much as I could to be prepared.
“I’m as fit as I have been, I below 100 kilos for the first time since I was 18 years old.
“I’m certainly fit and strong and I’m ready to go."
Gallen v Huni will take place at the Aware Super Theatre in Sydney on Wednesday, with the undercard beginning at 6:00pm.
Listen to the full chat here: