Willis Pele "The Hitman" Meehan (born 11 September 1995) is an Australian professional boxer. He previously played professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

for the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby league, Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

. He played at and . He has been compared to good friend and another rugby league-boxer and former teammate

Sonny Bill Williams Sonny Bill Williams (born 3 August 1985) is a New Zealand heavyweight boxer, and a former professional rugby league and rugby union player and as of recently is working for Stan Sports. He is only the List of dual-code rugby internationals#New ...

Background

Born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand, Meehan moved to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, at a young age and played his junior football for the West Ryde Aliens and

Wyong Roos The Wyong Rugby League Football Club are an Australian rugby league club based on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The club competed in the New South Wales Cup from 2013 to 2018 and still competes in the Central Coast Division Rugby League ...

before being signed by the

Playing career

In 2013 and 2014, Meehan played for the

NYC New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

team. In 2013, he played for the

Australian Schoolboys The Australian Schoolboys refer to junior teams that represent Australia in various sports. The name is mainly used in rugby league, rugby union and baseball. Other popular team sports in Australia such as cricket, basketball, association footbal ...

. In Round 14 of the

2014 NRL season The 2014 NRL season was the 107th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 17th season of the National Rugby League in Australia and New Zealand. The season started in New Zealand, for the Auckland Nines, replacing the Rugby Leagu ...

, Meehan made his

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

debut for the Roosters against the

Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership. Playing in red and blue, th ...

. On 2 September 2014, he was named at in the 2014

Team of the Year. In 2015, Meehan was stood down by the Roosters after being charged with robbery in company and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He was sacked by the club in July 2015. Meehan later played for Manly and the

Auburn Warriors The Auburn Warriors Rugby League Football Club were an Australian rugby league football club based in Auburn, New South Wales formed in 1953. They played in the NSW Ron Massey Cup competition and in Sydney's A-Grade competitions. 2017 In The 2 ...

in the lower grades. In 2017, he signed a contract with

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

but was blocked from playing in the NRL for the

2017 NRL season The 2017 NRL season was the 110th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 20th season run by the National Rugby League. The season started in New Zealand with the annual Auckland Nines, and was followed by the All Stars Match, w ...

. He instead played for the clubs feeder team

Wentworthville Wentworthville is a suburb in Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wentworthville is located 27 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Greater Western Sydney region. Wentworthville is split betw ...

Boxing

As a 17-year-old, Meehan won the Australian super-heavyweight boxing title and hoped to fight at the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930, and, with the exce ...

, narrowly missing out. In 2016, he hopes to fight at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

. On 31 January 2015, Meehan fought on the undercard of the Sonny Bill Williams v

Chauncy Welliver Chauncy Welliver (born 28 April 1983) is an American-New Zealand heavyweight boxer from Spokane, Washington who lived in Auckland, New Zealand. He has a career record of 57–13–5. Throughout his career he has never been knocked down and at one ...

bout. On 15 November 2015, Meehan defeated Leamy Tato; however, the main event saw Meehan's father defeated by Joseph Parker.

Professional boxing record

Personal life

Meehan is the son of professional boxer,

Kali Meehan Kalivati Gerald Meehan (born 9 March 1970) is an Australian professional boxer of Fijian people, Fijian descent. He turned pro after a career in rugby league. His son Willis Meehan plays rugby league and boxes. Amateur career Before becoming ...

. He converted to Islam in 2015. In April 2015, Meehan was charged with headbutting a man and stealing his watch near

The Star, Sydney The Star Sydney (formerly Star City Casino and prior to that, Sydney Harbour Casino) in Pyrmont, New South Wales, Pyrmont, Sydney, is the second largest casino in Australia after Melbourne's Crown Melbourne, Crown Casino. Overlooking Darling Ha ...

. However, he was not convicted after his robbery in company charge was thrown out. Meehan later revealed he had been working, while playing for the Roosters, as a stand-over man to settle debts for Australian Hells Angels Bikies.

References

External links

Sydney Roosters profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Meehan, Willis 1995 births Living people Australian people of I-Taukei Fijian descent Australian rugby league players Australian male boxers Converts to Islam Heavyweight boxers Junior Kangaroos players New Zealand emigrants to Australia Rugby league second-rows Rugby league props Rugby league locks Rugby league players from Auckland Sydney Roosters players Wyong Roos players