Candice Warner hits back over Roxy Jacenko SAS feud
Candice Warner has claimed former friend and PR manager Roxy Jacenko tried and failed to ‘land a punch’ in their now-infamous SAS Australia spar, despite the PR queen claiming she refused to engage in the fistfight.
The two women were long time friends -Roxy famously supporting Candice when her husband David Warner was at the centre of Cricket Australia's ball-tampering scandal - but the physical fight proved the final blow to the friendship with Roxy revealing on Kyle and Jackie O the women had irreparably fallen out over the incident.
Now Candice has defended herself, appearing on Nova FM’s Fitzy and Wippa this morning to slam Roxy’s claim that she didn’t want to participate in the fight and refused to fight back, saying Roxy was simply unable to compete.
In response to Fitzy saying Roxy ‘didn’t want to do the boxing challenge’ a visibly frustrated Candice shot back, ‘Didn’t she?’.
Probed by the radio hosts Candice rubbished Roxy’s account of the incident.
“Let’s just say we know what we were getting ourselves into and there was an opportunity before the fight to pull out,” the mum of two told the duo. “At that moment if we wanted to we could say no we don’t want to do this but we both chose to glove up, put the helmet on.”
“She said I walked away because I didn’t want to be involved for entertainment and be hit in the face,” Fitzy responded.
“She tried to but she couldn’t land a punch,” Candice fired back. “That’s the honest truth”
The startling claim comes after Roxy told Kyle and Jackie O she decided she couldn’t hit her friend on principle.
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"You know why I never hit back?” the Sweaty Betty founder told the duo. “She's my mate and I'm not going to smack [her] in the face for other people's entertainment."
"You wouldn't continue punching when the person – me – turns their back and continue punching them in the back of the head. In boxing, that's totally not allowed. The reality is, I can't punch my then-friend in the face for people's entertainment."
She continued, "You look back and go, 'F**k, I should have whacked her one,' but you know what? I'm bigger than that and I've got respect for other people."
Roxy pulled out shortly after the incident, but Candice has gone on to weather a number of blows on the show, both physical and mental.
The sportswoman was grilled on the program on Monday evening over an infamous 2007 incident in which she was seen with NRL great Sonny Bill Williams in a toilet cubicle.
Candice Warner (then Candice Falzon before she was married) and legend Sonny Bill met at the Clovelly Hotel in 2007 and were filmed by a member of the public in a toilet cubicle.
Candice, 22, was an elite ironwoman at the time and a 21-year-old Williams was at the start of his NRL career with the Bulldogs.
On the program, she called it a ‘very big mistake’.
“It is something I am not proud of but something I can never take back,” she told the interrogators.
“I put myself in a situation where I shouldn’t have and because of that I brought embarrassment (and) shame to my family.”
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