NRL great Matty Johns has received a VIP invite to the UFC’s upcoming White House blockbuster, while an emotional Perth Bears major recruit revealed how he struggled to make the biggest call of his life. MORE IN NRL DAILY!
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‘IMAGINE THAT’: JOHNS’ TRUMP VISION
Matty Johns’ relationship with UFC founder Dana White has led to the former Australian international and NSW representative receiving a special invitation to UFC Freedom 250 Fight Week on the lawn of the White House.
The first-of-its-kind fight event will take place on June 14 – US President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
Johns told The Daily Telegraph that he intends to arrive in Washington DC with a gift for Trump.
“I’ve still got a few weeks to work out what to get the President of the United States for his birthday,” Johns said.
“That’s not something in my life I ever thought I would have to consider. What do you buy a bloke who’s got everything?
“I might ask my brother Andrew (Johns) if he has a spare autographed Newcastle Knights jersey I could give him.”
Johns and White struck up a connection when the NRL great interviewed the UFC President and CEO for Fox Sports in Las Vegas in March.
“We finished the interview and he had ABC (US) and CBS waiting for him and Dana said, ‘Oh don’t worry about them’ and he then proceeded to take me on a tour of his house for the next hour,” Johns said.
“Then five or six days later the UFC reached out to me and told me I’d be invited to UFC Freedom 250, which of course is on the lawn of the White House, which is great because not much has been happening at the White House, particularly lately.”
The fights will be held in a 2,000 seat arena on the White House South Lawn with roughly half the seats reserved for US military personnel.
“It’s going to be the most incredible thing that I have been a part of in my life, let alone my career,” White told Johns in the March interview.
Despite the invite, Johns and several other VIP’s will not unknown until the days leading up to the event whether they have actually secured accreditation to access the arena.
The 54-year-old will not be the only Australian descending on the US capital for the event.
The country’s greatest ever UFC fighter Alexander Volkanovski will also be in attendance.
The world champion and Johns will combine to conduct interviews with well-known fighters and celebrities for Fox Sports in the lead-up to the event.
“Much like what I did with James Magnussen during the Paris Olympics in 2024, we’ll be taking viewers behind the curtain of one of the world’s most extraordinary sporting events ever held in the US,” Johns said.
With the annual season opener in Las Vegas, the NRL are on a crusade to show off the game in the US and Johns said he is willing to play a helping hand.
“I might take him a Steeden (football),” Johns said.
“Imagine that, the US President putting a bomb up, I mean with a footy, on the lawn of the White House.”
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‘DIDN’T WANT TO LOOK LIKE A BIG SOFTIE’: SHARKS STAR OPENS UP ON MOVE
Siosifa Talakai told The Daily Telegraph of how he was on the verge of tears with Cronulla Sharks Craig Fitzgibbon as he struggled to make the call to leave the club.
Talakai will join the Perth Bears on a three-year deal next season.
It was a decision that did not come easily to the NSW Origin representative as he wrestled with leaving the club.
The 29-year-old even revealed that he allowed a lucrative contract offer deadline to pass from the NRL’s newest team in the process.
“I wanted to be here (Sharks) until I was six-feet under,” Talakai said.
“It was something (the decision) that I was avoiding, they’d (Bears) given me two weeks to think about it and it took me well over a month to make a decision.”
“I just kept coming back to the Sharks,” he added.
“They’ve given me my second chance (after being released by Penrith in 2018).
“And, you know, I just wanted to be as transparent as I could with the club that’s pretty much given me everything.
“Every time I thought about it or had to talk to my manager about it, I was in tears.”
The decision-making process led to Talakai reflecting a lot on his rugby league journey.
The Tongan international began his NRL career with the Rabbitohs a decade ago before leaving to join the Panthers after 11 games for the Bunnies.
Talakai never made a first grade appearance for Penrith and dropped back down to the NSW Cup for a season before picking picked up by Cronulla.
“The journey of getting sacked by Souths (in mid-2018), going to Penrith and just losing my love for footy, then finding it again in Newtown (in 2019),” he said.
“And then an opportunity off the back of that to get a 20-week train-and-trial deal here (in 2020), man, I fell in love with footy again.”
“I fell in love with the boys that were here (at Cronulla), the camaraderie, just everything about the club and the community as well,” he added.
“Nothing here is given on a silver platter. Everything is earned and man, that’s just my values.
“There’s a lot of senior heads here that paved the way for myself.
“People like Woodsy (Aaron Woods), Andrew Fifita, Duges (Josh Dugan), Josh Morris, Shaun (Johnson), when he was here, Chaddy (Townsend), Wade (Graham), Moisa (Matt Moylan), when I first come here, they made everything so much easier.
“I’ve got so much love for them. I wouldn’t be the player or the person I am without them and the coaching staff.
“I feel that if I hadn’t been given this opportunity to come here, who knows where I would have ended up.’’
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Given the immense gratitude he has for the Sharks, Talakai said speaking to Fitzgibbon about leaving after seven seasons with the club was one of the hardest things he has done in his career.
“I had spoken about the pros and cons of things with my manager and it was pretty much set (on the Bears),” Talakai said.
“There’s another side of footy that people don’t see and it’s a business.
“The reality is we have so many players off contract and little cap space and that’s unfortunate for myself, but it’s a great opportunity for young players coming through.”
He continued: “Once I made the decision and got over the tears, I came to tell Fitzy, I was in his office.
“I was close to crying, I didn’t want to look like a big softie.
“But I had to be a man and confront it.
“Now that the decision has been made, my mindset hasn’t changed at all. I’m still getting after it every day and trying to win every day and bring the trophy back to Cronulla.
“The end goal is to leave this club as a winner and to share whatever knowledge I can with the younger generation coming through.
“I want to play my part as a leader before I leave and I’m really enjoying passing that knowledge on to our younger forwards, particularly Tuku Hau Tapua, he’s a big talent with potential and also our backrowers like Harry Hassett, who is coming through as well.”
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