Nelson Asofa-Solomona has landed another low blow on Paul Gallen, claiming even his premiership-winning former Cronulla teammates want the Sharks legend laid out on Friday night.
Turning even nastier, a day after the Big Nasty riled his rival by dragging Gallen's wife into the verbal sledging, Asofa-Solomona lobbed a grenade with explosive accusations about the Sharks' only ever grand final-winning captain.
"There's been so many people jumping in my DMs," Asofa-Solomona said on Thursday.
"People that have played with him, people that have played against him, people who have worked with them in the past. They were telling me all these stories about him and saying 'yeah, bro, please do a job on him'.
"That was my plan all along anyway."
The Cronulla-Melbourne rivalry is one of the fiercest in the NRL, with the two sides featuring in a series of spiteful encounters either side the Sharks' stirring 2016 grand final triumph over the Storm.
Having already copped a drugs spray from Asofa-Solomona (3-0, 3KOs) in light of the Cronulla peptides saga, Gallen (16-2-1, 8KOs) will be livid at the ex-Storm star's latest verbal jabs.
Asofa-Solomona wouldn't be drawn on specifics but said Gallen's ex-NSW State of Origin teammates and "work colleagues" were also among those who he claimed had reached out to him in the hope of doing over the 2014 series-winning Blues skipper.
"I can't say too much, but probably just stuff to do with money and bits and pieces," Asofa-Solomona said.
"But, look, he's grown up in a different era. He's a bit of a different cat, but the new era is here."
Asofa-Solomona's inflammatory allegations came after the two heavyweights featured in a spicy weigh-in face-off at Sydney's TikTok Entertainment Centre.
Eye-balling each other, despite Asofa-Solomona's massive height, weight and reach advantage, the ex-New Zealand Test enforcer promised Gallen he would proudly take the mantle of NRL-boxing cross-over king on Friday night.
"And if it's not a knockout, I don't want it," the 200cm, 137.56kg behemoth said.
"That's the only result I'm here to get. I'm here for a highlight-reel finish."
But the retiring Gallen is having none of it, insisting even at 45 that he will find a way to overcome the 15-year, 22cm height and 33.42kg weight disparity
"I'm really proud I'm fighting a bloke now, 30-odd kilos heavier than me, 15 years younger than me and I'm still willing to compete - and I'll win this fight at my age," he said.
"That's what I'm proud of. And this is a no-lose situation for me. I'm going to get paid a ton of money and go home happy and healthy and live the rest of my life with my family.
"That's my goal in life and that's what I'm here to do."
