The Best Novelty Fight Night You’ll See This Month: Junior Paulo vs Paul Gallen

If you're a rugby league fan who misses the good old days (we're talking two seasons ago) when the baddest men on the planet engaged in running bare knuckle brawls, you'll be ecstatic about Friday's Charity Fight Night in Sydney.

Two of rugby league's baddest men, in Cronulla Sharks and NSW Origin enforcer Paul Gallen, and Polynesian man-mountain, Junior Paulo, will face off in what promises to be a bizarre yet mouthwatering bout.

Gallen needs no introduction. For over a decade he's forged a reputation as someone who just loves hurting people. Like that time he searched beneath Anthony Laffranchi's head strapping and dug his fingers into a freshly sutured wound, opening it up again, and winning his team a breather as Lafranchi's Gold Coast Titans attacked the try line (he was forced off with a blood bin). Gallen has long hinted at his desire to fight professionally, following in the footsteps of such memorable and not so memorable rugby league cross-over pugilists as Anthony Mundine, Sonny Bill Williams, Solomon Haumono and John Hopoate.

But if it weren't for Gallen fighting would never have been outlawed by the NRL in the first place (by outlawed, we mean mandatory ten minute sin bins for whoever throws the first punch). It was his thunderous three-punch combo on the kidney-bean shaped head of Queensland grub, Nate Myles that did so much damage to the image of the game, NRL's corporate-minded CEO, Welshmen, David Smith, stepped in and banned it forever.

Gallen's opponent is a real wild man. At 187 cm and 123 kilograms, there is no way to describe the Samoan-heritaged Junior Paulo other than gargantuan. He's also terrifying, famous for steam rolling opponents with immense hit-ups and leaving ball-runners embedded in the turf with his defence.

Even better, as far as fight fans go, though decidedly less so for the general public, he has an incredibly short fuse. This was highlighted just this October when he was charged with common assault and disqualified from driving for a year after a road rage incident in which he tail-gated a man than attacked him. Paulo was transferred to the Canberra Raiders from Parramatta mid-season following a number of off-field indescretions, including being photographed dining with outlaw gangsters and turning out for a family member's amateur third grade rugby union team.

But the undercard to the Gallen vs Paulo fight might be even better. It pits two of the most erratic and controversial players of the last ten years against each other, in serial bad boy come performance artist extraordinaire, Todd Carney and the mongrel from Cherbourg via Parramatta and South Sydney, Chris Sandow.

Carney, who earned mad respect in the Berlin underground for his human bubbler, but less so in the conservative Australian tabloids, is back in Australia during the off-season of his French rugby league club, Catalans. In the lead up to the fight, a philosophical Carney, speaking to Fox Sports, hinted at a return to the NRL should someone offer him a contract.

"You look at the Australian side and there's a lot of players over 31, 32 so if I was to get a contract in the NRL I've got at least two or three years in me," he told Fox, adding: "You can only move forward and I believe I've moved forward from things that have happened in my life…I've corrected a lot of them. If I could change it, yes but regrets no. You just have to move forward and learn. There's a lot of life in me and my journey will keep going."

Built like a wrecking ball, Sandow is renowned for his aggression, gamesmanship and competitive instinct. He too is looking for a lifeline in the NRL after walking out on English Super League club, Warrington, with a fresh breath of fire from his coach to help him on his way.

"He was OK for most of it and at sometimes he was a pain in the proverbial," said Warrington Chief Executive, Tony Smith following his departure just a few days out from the commencement of pre-season training.

"I can honestly say because of what he overall contributed to our squad and our team, I'm not too bothered," he said.

Sandow has reportedly been training heavily for the bout with ambitions of becoming a professional boxer. This will be his debut in the ring, however, as it will be for Carney. You can bet it will be a frenetic, amateurish, highly entertaining brawl.

*The fights will be aired Friday night from 7pm on Fox Sports One.