I remember the first time I saw Nelson Asofa-Solomona shirtless.
It was June 2018, in a Colorado hotel. Covering the ill-fated Denver rugby league Test between England and New Zealand, I was walking past the hotel swimming pool and caught sight of the biggest human I had seen.
I remember thinking to myself: this man, if so inclined, could inflict serious damage on anyone.
And so it came to pass at Sydney’s TikTok Entertainment Centre on Friday night.
Sitting only a few metres away from the action – only the likes of Kangaroos World Cup stars Latrell Mitchell, Pat Carrigan, Harry Grant, Sam Walker, Lindsay Smith had a better vantage – Asofa-Solomona unleashed a series of unanswered right hands – including four vicious uppercuts – that ended the pugilistic career of Paul Gallen.
At least two of the final blows were superfluous, delivered after Gallen’s porch lights had been turned off. Yet still they came, while Gallen was suspended between the ropes and the canvas.
It was the job of Asofa-Solomona, and referee Chris Condon, to ensure they weren’t thrown. With much power comes much responsibility.
It was sickening to witness – even for punters who had paid the $70 pay-per-view fee to have their bloodlust sated, let alone those who had parted with even more cash to watch it ringside.
Not that Gallen was complaining.
“I said to him, ‘Don’t worry, I would have done the same thing’,” Gallen told me on Saturday.
“I’ve got no issue, no problem. He beat me fair and square.”
And yet it wasn’t the evening’s most disturbing scene. It was the final bout on the card but Asofa-Solomona was in the mood to keep punching on. “Big Nasty” jumped out of the ring, made a beeline for a spectator, and cocked a huge right roundhouse punch that, mercifully, he aborted just in time. After whaling on a concussed Gallen, this is proof he can pull a punch at will.
The former premiership-winning Storm prop apologised, saying he had been incited by a racist ape gesture by a spectator. NSW Police are investigating the matter.
“If I could have my time back I would handle it differently because that behaviour isn’t acceptable,” Asofa-Solomona said. “At the same time, what that person did with that gesture isn’t acceptable, either.”
It’s not the first time the red mist has descended upon Asofa-Solomona. Seven years ago, footage emerged of the premiership-winning Melbourne forward throwing wild punches during a street brawl at La Favela nightclub in Seminyak, Bali.
Given his power and size – all 201 centimetres and 137 kilograms of him – one of those punches, if it had connected, could have been fatal.
Asofa-Solomona claimed he acted in defence of then-Storm teammate Suliasi Vunivalu. The NRL integrity unit took a dim view and suspended him for three Test matches and issued a suspended $15,000 fine.
Asofa-Solomona, first and foremost, is a footballer. He did not grow up in the ring and is still a relative novice, which is why I’m prepared to cut him some slack for the late blows on Gallen. Even if, momentarily, the lines between sanctioned violence and assault were blurred.
However, his conduct outside the ring is a concern. If a punter did, in fact, make a racial slur, he should receive a long ban from boxing. If Asofa-Solomona isn’t careful, he may end up with one as well.
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