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WILLIS Meehan is travelling towards Coolangatta Airport but everyone in the car knows the giant Roosters teenager is really on the road to becoming the best all-round sportsman in Australia.
Meehan has just finished a torrid sparring session with the world’s No.1 heavyweight contender Alex Leapai and is being interviewed by The Courier-Mail as he heads home.
A few hours later, after his flight to Sydney, and still sore from the boxing, he will set up a 15th-minute try for skipper Alex Thomas as the Roosters under-20 side crushes the Junior Bulldogs 44-12 at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
This week Meehan is in Fremantle, ready to defend the Australian super-heavyweight boxing title in the Commonwealth Games trials.
He won the title last year, aged just 17, with a one-sided victory over 29-year-old Johan Linde, a 198cm London Olympian.
At 195cm and 116kg, Meehan has already been described as another Sonny Bill Williams — but one who can actually fight and at just 18 is one of the most astonishing athletic talents in the country.
The Roosters allowed their hard-running young giant to spend last week on the Gold Coast, where he sparred 14 rounds with Leapai during the Brisbane strongman’s preparations to face world champ Wladimir Klitschko in Germany on April 27.
Meehan landed his share of good punches over the week and Leapai declared that ``Willis is an enormous talent — a guy who can be absolute champion in both boxing and rugby league.’’
But Meehan says the best punch he ever landed was as a seven-year-old when he was rough-housing with his father, Kali, in the backyard of their home at Wyong, north of Sydney.
A monster roundhouse to the ribs knocked the wind out of his dad, no mean effort considering that same year Kali Meehan went within a whisker of winning the WBO version of the world heavyweight title from Klitschko’s conqueror Lamon Brewster in Las Vegas.
“I learned to fight by boxing my older brother (fellow Rooster Louis Meehan) in the backyard,’’ Willis said.
“Louis was always 10kg heavier than me growing up and he has a right hand like a whip. If I didn’t learn to duck it would be `whoosh’ and my head would go spinning.’’
Kali Meehan, 43, played representative rugby league for the Central Coast and his boys started out there for the Wyong Roos.
Willis has had long discussions with the Roosters about becoming the first top-grade footballer to fight at the Commonwealth Games and Olympics. He is already eyeing another slice of sporting history.
``If Alex Leapai can take the world title this month I’ll be happy that I played a small part in history,’’ he said.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1226877624841
Meehan has just finished a torrid sparring session with the world’s No.1 heavyweight contender Alex Leapai and is being interviewed by The Courier-Mail as he heads home.
A few hours later, after his flight to Sydney, and still sore from the boxing, he will set up a 15th-minute try for skipper Alex Thomas as the Roosters under-20 side crushes the Junior Bulldogs 44-12 at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.
This week Meehan is in Fremantle, ready to defend the Australian super-heavyweight boxing title in the Commonwealth Games trials.
He won the title last year, aged just 17, with a one-sided victory over 29-year-old Johan Linde, a 198cm London Olympian.
At 195cm and 116kg, Meehan has already been described as another Sonny Bill Williams — but one who can actually fight and at just 18 is one of the most astonishing athletic talents in the country.
The Roosters allowed their hard-running young giant to spend last week on the Gold Coast, where he sparred 14 rounds with Leapai during the Brisbane strongman’s preparations to face world champ Wladimir Klitschko in Germany on April 27.
Meehan landed his share of good punches over the week and Leapai declared that ``Willis is an enormous talent — a guy who can be absolute champion in both boxing and rugby league.’’
But Meehan says the best punch he ever landed was as a seven-year-old when he was rough-housing with his father, Kali, in the backyard of their home at Wyong, north of Sydney.
A monster roundhouse to the ribs knocked the wind out of his dad, no mean effort considering that same year Kali Meehan went within a whisker of winning the WBO version of the world heavyweight title from Klitschko’s conqueror Lamon Brewster in Las Vegas.
“I learned to fight by boxing my older brother (fellow Rooster Louis Meehan) in the backyard,’’ Willis said.
“Louis was always 10kg heavier than me growing up and he has a right hand like a whip. If I didn’t learn to duck it would be `whoosh’ and my head would go spinning.’’
Kali Meehan, 43, played representative rugby league for the Central Coast and his boys started out there for the Wyong Roos.
Willis has had long discussions with the Roosters about becoming the first top-grade footballer to fight at the Commonwealth Games and Olympics. He is already eyeing another slice of sporting history.
``If Alex Leapai can take the world title this month I’ll be happy that I played a small part in history,’’ he said.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/...-1226877624841
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