Justin Hodges is calling on the Australian National Boxing Federation to overturn his loss to fellow NRL great Paul Gallen.
Failing that, Hodges demands Gallen get back in the ring with him for a rematch after he claims he was robbed of victory at their first face-off in Brisbane last month.
Gallen won the bout when the referee controversially opted to stop the fight in the third round as Hodges copped a barrage of big punches.
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It was an incident during the second round that has Hodges fuming, and ready to launch an official appeal to the governing body.
Hodges was dominating the second round and knocked Gallen down – the first opponent to do so in Gallen’s 17 fights – until the former Cronulla captain bounced back and jammed his opponent on the ropes.
Hodges was bent backwards over the ropes, and as he was in a vulnerable position Gallen threw a big right hand and caught Hodges flush in the face.
Hodges was rocked by the punch and never recovered properly, eventually being stopped and losing the bout.
“The more I thought about it, and the more people told me… at the end of the day it was a foul shot,” Hodges told Wide World of Sports.
“They said realistically I should have had up to five minutes to recover, or if I couldn’t fight on then he gets disqualified – but obviously I don’t want to win like that.
“That shot was probably the main one that rocked me, then the end of that round was when the ref stopped it. That was a massive hit that I got.
“I felt like I got the wrong end of the stick. We’re just fighters… probably the ref needed to take more responsibility.
“I don’t know if he saw the illegal hit, he probably didn’t, but when I got up I took a knee because I was actually rattled from the hit, and the ref said to me ‘get up’.
“(The stoppage) was the most annoying part. I understand their job is to protect us, and he probably thought he was protecting me, but I probably needed protecting a minute earlier.
“If you look at the photo, my hands are down, he’s holding onto them and I’ve got no way of protecting myself, then he comes over the top and plants one in my face.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, a guy that big coming down with that kind of force is going to rock you if you can’t move your head or get your hands up to protect yourself.”
Gallen was contacted by Wide World of Sports but opted to not comment on Hodges’ threat of legal action.
Gallen has previously said he is prepared to fight one more time this year before retiring from the sport for good. In the ring after their bout, both Gallen and Hodges agreed to a rematch.
“I’ll let them sort all that out. Hopefully we get to have a rematch because I think I deserve it,” Hodges said.
Hodges is adamant the appeal is not designed simply to coax Gallen into another fight.
“I always teach my kids to be a good sportsman, never to carry on. At the end of day you win you win, if you lose you lose,” he said.
“I didn’t want to disrespect the sport by carrying on and using that as an excuse. I feel like I probably didn’t get justice on the night.
“If I lost, I could hack losing. But I was up on all the scorecards, it was coming to the end of the third round, we had one more round to go and I would’ve won the fight.”
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