An irritated Barry Hall has warned he's improved enormously with limited preparation and accused Paul Gallen of preparing excuses before their heavyweight boxing clash on Friday night.
At Wednesday's pre-fight media conference, newly-retired NRL star Gallen, who has won all nine of his professional fights, claimed he could "see the fear" in former AFL spearhead.
Gallen has been the most vocal in the lead up, taunting Hall and particularly taking issue with the stipulation they fight rounds of two - not three - minutes.
"I will turn it back on him in saying all these excuses he's been coming up with, there's a little seed of doubt there in his mind that if he loses to someone 42 years of age, in their pro debut, where does that leave him?" Hall said.
"I think he's looking for excuses now, in case he does lose.
"I've got no doubt that he thinks he can win the fight but I think he's just looking for a few excuses now, that if he does, he can fall back on them.
"And from my point of view, mentally, that's a weakness."
Hall took issue when Gallen interrupted while he was speaking to chide him for not doing more to spruik the fight.
"Shut up, mate. I'm sick of hearing the bullshit," said Hall.
Gallen, who is the betting favourite, insisted he wasn't feeling the pressure and mocked Hall for sparring with cruiserweights, saying he wouldn't be able to handle the power of heavyweight boxing.
Hall (194cm) responded with a decent jab of his own about the former Cronulla captain's height (180cm).
"We had to get cruiserweights because there was no one that short," said Hall.
Hall is in his first professional fight after previously boxing at an amateur level as a teenager but he was happy with his seven-week training program.
"You never lose your technique and that's something that's come back pretty quickly," he said.
"One thing I did have to work on from coming from an amateur to a professional is my power, obviously amateur you're scoring, you're scoring and trying not to get hit.
"I've been sitting down my punches, I've improved out of sight in seven weeks."
Both Hall and Gallen dismissed concerns about the fight taking attention away from full-time boxers.
Earlier on Friday night's card, Australian Andrew Moloney will face New York-based fighter Elton Dharry for the WBA interim super flyweight title.
"We don't want to disrespect boxers or fighters - we know they do it tough - but if we can bring a few more eyes to the boxing game and help people in the long run, that's the goal here," Hall said.
Australian Associated Press
