Hodges ready to ring the changes

CAIRNS Kangaroos junior Justin Hodges makes his professional boxing debut in three weeks but says he will be walking into the ring with 25 years of hits and memories to inspire him.

He was just a kid in the Far North when his father Roy first hung a heavy bag in the backyard of their home to put some punch into his rugby league training and together they would watch all the big fights they could on TV, mesmerised by the freakish speed of the great American Roy Jones Jr.

Hodges (below), 36, first took up boxing training in earnest with Anthony Mundine back in 2002 and ever since has had the desire to test himself in a real fight. The 190cm, 100kg Maroons great is set to face Ipswich novice Rob Baron in a heavyweight bout at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on February 8. The fight card will be topped by a rugby league shootout between Sharks skipper Paul Gallen and league’s perpetual “bad boy” John Hopoate, a former Australian heavyweight boxing champion.

Hodges spent 15 years at the top of rugby league, playing 251 first grade games for the Broncos and Roosters, 24 Origin games for Queensland and 13 Tests for Australia but says he is still taking “baby steps” in the fight game and is a long way from punching on with the likes of Gallen or NZ great Sonny Bill Williams.

“Those guys are a long way down the track,” he said yesterday after being joined by four-year-old son Carter for a spirited training session at Gareth Williams’ Boxing Shop Gym inside the Nathan Campus of Griffith University.

“Gal, Sonny Bill and Hoppa are all a lot more experienced in boxing than I am. They started years ago.

“For me it’s just one fight at a time.”