State of Origin super-fight! Hodges sets up blockbuster against ‘big head’ Gallen

Ex-Maroons star Justin Hodges beat social media influencer Jordan Simi to set up a State of Origin super-fight against former NSW captain Paul Gallen.

Hodges claimed his fifth win in the ring (now boasting a 5-2 record) on the undercard of Nikita Tszyu’s fight with Ben Horn in Sydney, when he outmuscled boxing debutant Simi.

Justin Hodges walked to the ring to the tune of: ‘Here comes the Boom,’ and delivered plenty of explosive shots in the ring. He was unable to find the killer blow inside the four allotted rounds, but comfortably won every round on all three judges’ scorecards.

Then he wasted little time in continuing a long-running war of words with his fellow 40-year-old ex-NRL star Gallen.

“I’ve got one more fight left,” he said. “Myself agreed to it, Gal’s agreed to it. He made the bet: whichever team won Origin (hosts). Queensland kicked their ass, so he’s got to come up to Queensland.”

The Battle Of The Brothers: Watch as unbeaten Nikita Tszyu faces Ben Horn live on Wednesday 20 July from 7pm AEST on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >

Sweet Adams combo ENDS Sims | 01:05 The former Sharks hardman is far more experienced with a 12-2-1 record, having lost two of his last three fights to Justis Huni and Kris Terzievski respectively – both Australian heavyweight title bouts which went the full 10 rounds.

But Hodges declared: “He might have a lot more experience than me, but I’ll go out and throw all the right hands I can and I’ve only got to get him once. He’s got a pretty big head, I hope I can catch him.”

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“I go into every fight confident, like I played rugby league. It’s a different sport, boxing, and I trained my guts out. I’ll go up against Gal, I don’t really give a crap. I’m a man and I’ll face him face-to-face in the ring.

“It’s up to Matty and George (Rose, promotors). They’ve got to bring it to QLD because QLD won Origin.”

Foxsports.com.au had been told that Gallen was set to attend the event and even planned to enter the ring to challenge Hodges, but Gallen was unable to pull off his wrestling-style call-out as he was stuck in rural NSW.

The pair of 40-year-old ex-NRL players have been eyeing up a bout for months, with Hodges declaring after his last win over former Queensland teammate Ben Hannant that he was keen to step into the ring with Gallen.

“If Queenslanders want to see me knock out the dirty cockroach,” Hodges said after that fight last month.

“I know Gal’s got heaps more experience than me but I’ll jump in and have a go, I don’t give a s***. I don’t know how long I’ll last but I know if I get him, he’ll be asleep.”

Gallen last month declared he would fight Hodges “any day of the week”, and even intervened in a Hodges’ radio interview, calling up the station and posing as “Paul from Cronulla”.

The pair also agreed at the time that the fight should take place on the home soil of whichever state won the State of Origin series – with the Maroons subsequently going on to win Game 3 in Brisbane.

Now the long-awaited deal appears a formality, with Hodges set to have home-ground advantage if the pair stick to their earlier agreement.