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Find your frequency'Losing its bones’: Asofa-Solomona takes swing at rugby league ahead of Gallen fight
Sport Nation • October 13th, 2026 12:15 pm
Nelson Asofa-Solomona | Photo: Joel Carrett/AAP
Nelson Asofa-Solomona believes rugby league is slowly losing its way, and says players of his size and aggressive style are being squeezed out of the game.
The former Melbourne Storm and Kiwis forward, who played for the club from 2015 to 2025, has found a new outlet for that aggression in boxing and is set to face another former NRL star Paul Gallen on November 6.
Asofa-Solomona explained changes in rugby league had made it harder for players with his build to thrive.
“The sad thing about rugby league right now is it's sort of losing its bones,” he told Sport Nation's Scotty & Izzy.
“People were sort of realising that you can duck and that you could do all types of things to try and get penalties and it was sort of creeping into the game.
“That aggressive nature, those people getting sort of rubbed out of the game. Guys my height you will not see in the next couple of years.
“But it's just the nature of the evolution of the game, the game's so fast, but it is what it is. You've got to adapt and I just probably didn't adapt well.”
Nelson Asofa-Solomona appears before the NRL Judiciary in 2024 | Photo: NRL Photos/Photosport
Asofa-Solomona said the final years of his rugby league career were turbulent, with discipline issues and missed grand finals contributing to his decision to walk away.
“I missed two grand finals in a row through just getting sent off and just discipline issues, probably just too aggressive so I just thought I’d take my aggressive nature somewhere else and it's worked so far.”
But he said it was hard “walking away from a game that I've loved for so long, but I just thought it was time.”
“There was one year I got charged 14 times and like the club don't pay for your fines, you have to pay for them, it was a very expensive year, I think it was in 2022.”
Nelson Asofa-Solomona celebrates his heavyweight victory over Jarrod Wallace | Photo: Mark Evans/AAP
Asofa-Solomona still follows rugby league, particularly the Kiwis, a team he was part of 12 months ago, as they head into camp for the Rugby League World Cup.
“It was hard, and it's still hard, even just watching the finals sort of just got itchy feet because that's what you play for, but every fight that I have feels like a grand final honestly, and there's no bigger fight than this fight against Paul Gallen.
“To jump in that ring, it takes a lot of balls, man, but it's something that I feel like I've been led to.
“I'm confident I can knock anyone out to be honest. I've got the Samoan and Polish power and I'm born in New Zealand, so when you're from New Zealand you can knock any one out.”
Listen to the full interview below:
