Barry Hall’s camp believe they succeeded in rattling Sonny Bill Williams after the AFL legend ignited their boxing weigh-in with a form of headbutt at Sydney’s Darling Harbour today.
Hall aggressively pushed his head into Williams’ face as the tension threatened to spill over ahead of Wednesday night’s heavyweight fight at Aware Super Theatre.
A member of Hall’s team was heard saying gleefully afterwards that “Sonny didn’t know what to do”.
Sonny Bill Williams vs Barry Hall, live and exclusive on Stan Event, March 23. Purchase the event now at stan.com.au/event
Hall weighed in at a lean and mean 97.8kg, giving away more than 11kg to Williams (109.1kg).
At 45 he is also nine years older than Williams but is revelling in a ‘Barry against the world’ mindset.
“It’s fact,” Hall said, while playing down the considerable gap in weight.
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“The press conference yesterday, there was an illustrious line-up, all the names written down, I had two people with me.
“There’s a lot of people that don’t want me to win this fight, I understand that. There’s a lot of money lost if he loses, I understand that also. That’s why I need to win by knockout and why I’m going to.”
Williams admitted that he was “nervous” ahead of his ninth professional fight “but for me it’s a sign that I’m ready to go”.
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As for his pre-fight plan?
“20 rounds of sparring… no, just chill. Watch a bit of Netflix, chill out and get ready for tomorrow.”
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