Paul Gallen criticized his next opponent, Kris Terzievski, for an alleged lack of interest in promoting their Australasian title fight, calling the Victorian a “softc–k” and labeling him a quitter.
Gallen, along with fellow boxers Harry Garside, Nikita Tszyu and Sam Goodman, addressed the media at Bondi Boxing Club in Waterloo ahead of next week’s fight card in Newcastle.
But Gallen’s opponent was conspicuous by his absence.
“He hasn’t done anything,” Gallen told reporters after his training session on Wednesday.
“It’s his time to shine, it’s his time to put his name in the sun…and he won’t even show up for media engagements.”
The 40-year-old first-place winning captain expanded on his comments afterwards, telling Wide World of Sports he had no idea why Terzievski wasn’t doing more to talk about next week’s fight.
“We all have things to do, but he wants to be a boxer and he will not show up to promote the fight,” he said.
“Look at Sam, look at Nikita, look at Harry, they’re all here. We all have things to do.”
“Boxing people always complain about the lack of support, the lack of publicity they get, and look at the media here. There’s as much media here as there would be at an NRL game, and he hasn’t shown up.”
“That’s just dumb, it’s literally dumb, it’s downright dumb. There isn’t much more I can say about it. They want publicity, they want promotion, but they won’t show up and they will, and whose fault is that?”
Gallen enters the fight as the favorite for a very short time, but he knows that his opponent is more than capable with the gloves, regardless of his media skills.
“I’ve seen some of his fights. He is a good fighter, he is very fast, but somewhere he has given up, I know he does. In his only defeat, he resigned », he said.
“I have to find that in the night and when I do, he’ll quit.”