“Why You Ain’t Challenge Me When I Was 43?”: Shaquille O’Neal Reveals His Biggest Problem With Dwight Howard

The rivalry between Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard has been well-documented ever since Howard decided to don a Superman cape at the 2009 Slam Dunk contest. Both men were still in the NBA at this point, but even now, with both effectively retired from the league, their feud continues to burn.

With celebrity boxing matches seemingly becoming a new way for former big names to return to a time in the spotlight, it didn’t come as too much of a surprise when Howard challenged the Big Fella to a bout recently. While O’Neal still showed the utmost confidence in his discussion on The Big Podcast with Shaq, the Hall of Fame big man wished he would’ve received the challenge a decade earlier.

“I heard you trained one of my enemies, I heard you trained Dwight Howard, is this true?” Shaq questioned his guest, former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. “Cause he gon’ need help. He gon’ need help, like, you challenge me to a boxing match? My thing is, why you wait ’til I’m 53 years old? Why you ain’t challenge me when I was 43? I’m sure I could do something, but I don’t have the same effect that I had when I was 43.” Shaq continued.

This is far from the first time the pair of legendary big men have gone at it publicly. O’Neal and Howard previously had a spat on X regarding the very same boxing match. Shaq downplayed Howard’s invitation and was adamant that he would only face champions but also emphasized that he wanted to see the NBA and NFL face off in the ring.

While it would certainly be an interesting spectacle, there’s no doubt that Howard, still just 38-years-old with a recent NBA stint under his belt, would have quite the physical advantage over the 53-year-old Shaq. ‘The Diesel’ has a point, a boxing match between the two 10 years ago would have been much more interesting.

Shaq eyeing boxing match with former NFL superstar

When discussing who he’d want to fight in a boxing match, Shaq had a specific name in mind – former New England Patriots tight end and NFL legend Rob Gronkowski. Both athletes spent multiple years as upper echelon superstars in their respective leagues.

“I will fight Gronk, as I said I’ll only fight true champions. I’ll let you people decide what that means. Gronk is big, he’s athletic, likes to compete… I wanted to do, like, NBA versus NFL, so if we could pull it off and really get a Gronk versus Shaq, Shaq versus Gronk, of course I’ll fight Gronk.”

It may seem like a longshot now, but we’ve already seen other former NBA stars like Nate Robinson and Deron Williams step into the ring on a national stage. Knowing Shaq and his tendency to find his way into everything, it wouldn’t be surpising to eventually see O’Neal and Gronk spar in the ring, possibly kickstarting an NBA versus NFL boxing movement.