Fight fans have lashed out at the upcoming bout between NRL hard men George Burgess and Nelson Asofa-Solomona, branding it a ‘clown show’ and accusing Burgess of being wildly out of shape.
The pair staged a heated and at times bizarre weigh-in for Wednesday night’s fight in Brisbane, with Asofa-Solomona asking his opponent if he’s ‘ready to die in the ring’.
‘NAS’ has already scored two knockout wins from his two professional fights, while Burgess is making his ring debut in the bout, which is on the undercard of Aussie pug Liam Paro’s world title fight against Lewis Croker.
Asofa-Solomona arrived for the weigh-in wearing a replica of the helmet Russell Crowe’s character wore in Gladiator in order to take a dig at Burgess, who knows the Hollywood star from their time together at Souths, and after working with him on the new mixed martial arts movie Beast.
But many fight fans were completely unimpressed by the display and predicted the fight would be a farce.
‘Seen grass growing be more entertaining,’ one wrote on Instagram.
George Burgess is pictured weighing in for his fight against fellow NRL star Nelson Asofa-Solomona on Wednesday night
The former Souths forward’s appearance left fans unimpressed, with some believing he’s nowhere near fit enough for the four-round bout
Asofa-Solomona wore a replica of Russell Crowe’s helmet from the movie Gladiator (pictured) to take a shot at Burgess, who knows the Hollywood star from his time with the Bunnies
‘Joke of a fight and arguably a disgrace to PPV buyers,’ another said, referring to the bout being sold on pay per view on Foxtel and its streaming service, Kayo.
‘Completely sad,’ another added.
‘This s**t is so cringe now,’ another said.
‘Is this the most unanticipated bout of all time? You’d better believe it,’ one wrote.
‘This is doing more damage than good for Australian boxing, imagine paying $60 for a world title boxing card and have a four-round co-main, with a guy on debut and another on his 3rd fight, absolute joke,’ another fan said.
More boxing fans left comments like ‘Circus with clowns’, ‘This is rubbish, give us a good fight’, ‘This is absolutely horrifically cringe’, and ‘This is an embarrassment.’
Others had an issue with Burgess’s apparent lack of fitness as he weighed in at 135.84kg, far above what he recorded in his playing days with the Rabbitohs, when he was around 120kg.
‘Burgess won’t get past the first round, too unfit,’ one said.
The fight will be Asofa-Solomona’s third as a professional, while Burgess will be making his ring debut – and many fight fans believe the clash isn’t worth paying for
Burgess’s appearance at the weigh-in was very different to how he looked in his playing days, when he clocked in at around 120kg
The former Rabbitohs star has also been blasted over the lack of footage of him training for the bout. He has only posted still images like this one
‘Was backing Burgess but the lad doesn’t look serious at all here,’ another wrote.
‘Look at that … been eating too many pies,’ said a third.
‘George might be stuffed if the fight goes past one minute from the look of things,’ another added.
Asofa-Solomona has also blasted Burgess for his apparent lack of preparation for the fight, claiming he has stunk of alcohol and cigarettes in their previous meetings to promote the clash.
The former Melbourne Storm star also accused his opponent of refusing to make his boxing training footage public.
While Asofa-Solomona’s Instagram has many clips of him working on his form in training, Burgess’s doesn’t feature any.
‘There’s absolutely no video of him,’ Asofa-Solomona said earlier this week.
‘There was some video maybe of him shadow boxing from a month ago. But otherwise, nothing. No footage of him sparring, on the heavy bag.
‘Deep down, the fact he isn’t putting any footage out there, it’s telling, and suggests he probably isn’t about it.’
Asofa-Solomona also said he is worried that Burgess might chicken out of the bout.
‘Honestly, I just hope he turns up – and doesn’t turn up drunk,’ he said.
Burgess hit back by blasting NAS for not making any improvements to his boxing despite training exclusively for the sport since quitting the NRL last October.
‘Nelson has supposedly gone full-time with this boxing switch, is training every day,’ Burgess said.
‘I thought we would’ve seen improvements in his footwork, in his defence, even improvements generally.
‘I know he’s got heavy punches … but if he really wants to take this seriously, and wants to make a career of boxing, he needs to work on the other parts of his game as well.’
