It wouldn’t be an NRL Las Vegas without some kind of beef – although good luck anyone who had Cowboys prop Matt Lodge and Nelson Asofa-Solomona going to war on their bingo card.
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While he may be 15,000km from the world’s fight capital, Asofa-Solomona gone and ignited exactly that by taking the big stick to Lodge on Instagram, and even suggesting the North Queensland recruit is only in the NRL because he chooses not to be.
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After Cowboys players completed their first training run here in Las Vegas on Monday, Lodge volunteered to front media and discuss being back on US soil for the first time since his infamous 2015 arrest in New York.
And it was as that interview was winding up, this column asked the longtime NRL enforcer about suggestions he could later this year take a crossover bout against Asofa-Solomona, who has quit rugby league to sign a lengthy fight deal with Australia’s No.1 boxing promoter No Limit.
“He already knows where he can get it,” Lodge said of the fighter dubbed Big Nasty.
“But for the rest of the year, we’ve got to focus on footy.
“I also don’t want to speak about boxing, especially while we’re over here.
“But he knows where he can get the fight and so does George [Rose].
“But right now, my full focus is this weekend.
“Unlike Nelson, I’m not gonna quit footy to get in the ring.
“But good luck to him. I hope [the boxing switch] fulfils what he wants to do.
“And if he wants to get it on, we can get it on.”
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Within hours, Asofa-Solomona fired back on Instagram, hinting that it was Lodge who would no longer be in the NRL if he had stayed.
When quitting his $800,00-a-year contract to take up boxing this year, it was confirmed the Melbourne Storm premiership winner had been fielding lucrative offers from the Parramatta Eels, Warriors and rugby’s mooted R360 competition.
However, NAS has now revealed the Cowboys were also interested in his services — and for the exact spot that was eventually offered up as something of a lifeline to former Manly Sea Eagle, Lodge.
All of which suddenly adds the pair to a run of Las Vegas feuds including that fiery 2024 hotel exchange between players from the Roosters and Brisbane Broncos, and following an onfield incident hours earlier between Spencer Leniu and Ezra Mam.
Last year too, the NRL Las Vegas week had headlined around an inflatable plastic bat and wrasslin’ Raiders Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies.
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KNIGHTS FLYER’S SHOCK TYSON PLOT
Newcastle star Bradman Best has confirmed himself a chance of completing what has to be the greatest Las Vegas bucket list item of any travelling NRL star this week – meeting Mike Tyson.
Only a day after Bulldogs players trained at the $100M Las Vegas Raiders HQ, Best has opened up on his plans to get a private audience with the legendary American heavyweight long considered ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’.
A massive fight fan, Best has already been in the T Mobile Arena crowd for Ryan Garcia’s world title win this week, trained at the UFC Performance Institute, and is also planning a visit to Johnny Tocco’s famed boxing gym tomorrow.
But at the top of his list – that meeting with Iron Mike.
And the man looking to make it all happen is the old man of Best’s partner, Kayla – Hall of Fame fighter, Jeff Fenech.
Jeff and wife Suzee arrived here in Las Vegas on Tuesday, along with Kayla and the baby daughter she and Best share, Kaliyah
Fenech and Tyson have been close friends for years, with the Marrickville Mauler even acting as the great’s trainer late in his career.
Asked by this column if, with Fenech in town, he could potentially be tagging along to meet Tyson himself, Best laughed: “I’ve actually been on to Jeff about hooking me up.
“And I’m hoping he can.
“Obviously Mike Tyson is busy.
“And he’s a hard man to get a hold of.
“But I’ve been on his case about it 24/7. Because to even shake Mike Tyson’s hand … that’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
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Asked about potentially one day having a crossover fight himself, Best said: “I have done some boxing and would jump in there just to test myself.
“I wouldn’t do UFC though.
“I can’t throw kicks or stuff like that. It’s crazy what they do.
“But I do love my boxing and maybe down the track would do that.”
Any chance you want us to send a text to Aussie promoters Matt and George Rose?
“I haven’t spoken to the boys about it yet,” Best said, smile widening across his face. “I really want to focus on footy first and then jump in the ring a bit later.
“[Laughs] And that’s when I’ll hit up the Rose boys.”
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LAS VEGAS RAIDERS VISIT
Kangaroos great Danny Buderus will be part of a small crew of travelling NRL types invited inside Las Vegas Raiders headquarters for a private meet ‘n greet session with players on Wednesday.
The event, which is closed off to the media, is something of a golden ticket for several NRL players who are huge American football fans.
Buderus, who is on the Knights coaching staff, will be accompanied by players Tyson Frizzell, Greg Marzhew and Matt Croker, while three Cowboys players will also be in attendance.
With the Bulldogs training at the Raiders HQ on Sunday, they spent Monday enjoying a day off, with No.6 Matty Burton heading to a local golf course with team-mates including Sean O’Sullivan, Connor Tracey and Harry Hayes.
Another group of Bulldogs players and staff took a trip out to Hoover Dam, with that group including Max King, Jacob Preston and Marcelo Montoya.
COOPER JOHNS IN LINE FOR US FOOTY SHOW
NRL larrikin Cooper Johns has been dubbed the “perfect fit” for a proposed new TV show aimed at selling rugby league to Americans – and overseen by the same producer who played a role in delaying the 1987 Origin game in Los Angeles.
Matty Johns and his two sons, Cooper and Jack, arrived together in Las Vegas on Sunday for what looms as a huge week for one of rugby league’s most popular families.
And while Matty is now among rugby league’s most recognisable faces, it’s his former Melbourne playmaker son who has been earmarked for a US footy show blueprint that mixes highlights, interviews and lifestyle pieces from across the NFL, college football and Australia’s premier rugby league competition.
And the man behind the concept is Aussie ex-pat Ray Simmons, who almost 40 years ago was part of Origin’s debut in Long Beach, California.
Now this week Simmons is jetting into Las Vegas to hopefully pitch his concept to Fox Sports executives, and the longtime Dragons fan says Matty Johns’ son would be perfect for the role.
Simmons also suggested the timing was perfect, saying: “You’ve not only got the NRL now here in Las Vegas, but you’ve also got the NFL looking to grow itself globally, too.
“So why not create a program that combines the two?
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“And someone like Cooper Johns would be the perfect fit. Or you could go with Jake Duke, or even Cooper Cronk …”
Wonderfully, Simmons has also outed himself as the man who was responsible for the ’87 Origin game to be delayed because, he says, the US cameramen had no idea what game they were even there to cover.
“In fact,” he laughs of a game eventually won by NSW 30-18, “they thought the game was something like hockey.
“I’ve got no idea how, but they had no clue.
“I remember two days out from the game asking organisers if the cameramen were America. I said ‘well, we might have a problem here’.
“And we did.
“I’m not sure if you’re old enough to remember, but the game was delayed – and that’s why.
“I’d got a group of the Hunting Beach rugby boys together and we played a game of touch footy out on the oval before the State of Origin game.
“It was all really last minute, but just to give the cameramen an idea of what was going to happen. Once they had it, we started the game …”
DRAGONS TRANSFORM COUNTRY BAR
We’ve gotta hand it to the St George Illawarra Dragons, who have transformed one of this column’s favourite Las Vegas bars for fight week.
For those who believe there are only two types of music – country and western – one of the most popular spots anywhere on the strip has to be the live music venue that is, Ole Red.
And this week, the Dragons are making it their own.
Apart from staff wearing Dragons t-shirts, or serving Budweiser in plastic Dragons cups, there are also club videos playing on the big screens, club posters on the walls, even an image of co-captain Clint Gutherson splashed large on the elevators.
The Dragons will use Ole Red as a base throughout the week, with a Friday fan day already sold out.
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