Harry Garside says the inflammatory comments from fellow Australian boxer Ahmed Reda were the stuff of “typical professional boxing”, again brushing off his rival’s remarks as he eyes his second Olympic Games campaign.
Reda fired up at Garside after defeating New Zealand’s Taunga Kairenga in Sydney last Friday night, suggesting the Olympian was the beneficiary of favouritism among judges and challenging him to a rematch. Garside, commentating for Fox Sports, laughed with his renowned ear-to-ear grin as he responded, saying he’d be open to fighting Reda again after winning Olympic Games gold. Boos rang throughout the venue as Garside, 26, shot back at the 20-year-old.
Reda’s comments came four months after Garside ended his rival’s Paris 2024 dream by beating his opponent via unanimous decision in Hobart.
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Speaking to Wide World of Sports as he made his way down the east coast of Australia on a solo pre-Christmas trip, Garside had a different response to the one he gave to Reda at The Star casino.
“His comments the other night, I think it’s just typical professional boxing; trying to sell fights, trying to make something of the situation,” Garside told Wide World of Sports.
“I can’t really stand that side of professional boxing and partially the reason I walked away from it was because I felt every fighter knows that if they’ve got something inside them they will always take on people, but I don’t need to call people out or shout about my manhood. I don’t need to do that.
“I just will do my work and show up as the best man I can on fight day. I’ll fight anyone, but I don’t need to sit there and talk it up and sell fights and do that sort of WWE wrestling type stuff. I feel like I’m bigger than that, I feel like I’m better than that, personally.”
Garside won bronze at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, before making a brief foray into professional boxing. The lightweight boxer took on three professional fights and won three, two by TKO and won by unanimous decision.
He aired his frustration with the theatrics of professional boxing on SEN radio last month, explaining that trash-talk was a factor in his return to the amateur game.
Anthony Mundine, Liam Paro and Shelley Watts were among a host of past and present professional and amateur boxers who shared their views with Wide World of Sports in the wake of those comments by Garside.
“It’s not for everybody, you know what I mean?” Mundine said.
“Everybody’s their own individual, everybody’s their own sort of character and has their own personality.”
Garside told SEN radio that he would not “sit there before a fight and disrespect a man”.
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He was true to his character in this week’s interview with Wide World of Sports, applauding the man who’d fired barbs at him.
“He’s an exceptional athlete himself and it was a good, hard fight,” Garside said of their clash in Hobart.
“I knew it was going to be. I felt I managed that whole situation in our fight really well. I felt like it was a great contest, a great match-up … It was like the match-up of the ages.”
