Boxing fans will enjoy a new exciting duel, which has the right to claim the title of a sports event of the year. Icelandic strongman Haftor Björnsson, known for his role as Mountain in the TV series Game of Thrones, summoned the British strong man Eddie Hall, whose recent world record in deadlift, he broke. Both athletes have confirmed that they are ready to find out relations with each other in the ring.
“Officially: in September 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mount will converge with the Beast. The upcoming year and a half of my career will be devoted only to this battle. I look forward to the moment when my family takes a seat at the ring and sees me in action. I will get to you, Eddie Hall, ”wrote Björnsson on his Instagram, posting a duel poster.
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Posted by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (@thorbjornsson) May 4, 2020 at 10:04 PDT
In his social networks, Hall announced the battle. The organizer of the boxing evening will be the promotion company Core Sports, which also holds mixed martial arts and weightlifting competitions.
The meeting between Björnsson and Hall is being promoted as the “hardest” boxing fight in history, and it sounds believable. An Icelandic athlete weighs about 205 kg, and his future rival from the UK is 186 kg. Before, the most difficult boxer in history was considered the Russian Nikolai Valuev, who before his fight with Alarim Uysal showed 158 kg in the weigh-in. At the same time, Björnsson and Hall will make up one of the highest pairs in boxing - their growth is 206 and 190 cm, respectively.
Björnsson challenged Hall to a duel shortly after breaking the British deadlift record. The Icelandic athlete managed to raise 501 kg above the ground, improving his previous achievement by 1 kg.
“I was just offered a seven-figure contract, this is the most ambitious contract in my life. I have already signed it. Eddie Hall has been grinding his tongue for two weeks now, and I know that he was offered the same deal. Eddie, I just broke your record. And now I'm ready to beat you in the ring. It's time to reinforce your big words with your fists and sign an agreement. I'm ready. Are you ready, Eddie? ” Said Björnsson.
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Posted by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (@thorbjornsson) May 2, 2020 at 11:30 PDT
Before the Icelandic strongman broke the record, Hall claimed that he was not going to recognize this achievement, since Björnsson intended to gain weight without observing a number of conditions in his own gym, and not during official competitions. But Hall agreed to a boxing match not for this reason, but because of a long-standing conflict that occurred three years ago at the tournament "The Strongest Man on the Planet" when Hall defeated Björnsson. However, the Icelander noted that in one of the repetitions, one repetition was not mistakenly credited to him.
“I will sign this contract, I declare 1000% with confidence. And you know why I will do it. It's not about the money, not about our deadlift story, or about anything else from the same series. The fact is that at the “Strongest Man on the Planet” of 2017, you called me a crook. I can’t stop thinking about it, I can’t forget about it. People may have forgotten, but you still have not asked for forgiveness. Do you think that you should have won that year, and this despite all my awards. You convince others of this as well. At your height two meters and six centimeters, that you are a real giant, I do not care. I will train with maximum perseverance and will do everything in my power to enter the ring and tear your head off to hell. In general, come on, Thor, train. See you in the ring, ”Hall replied.
Both athletes had never fought in the ring and preferred to show their strength only in power sports competitions. After winning the title “The Strongest Man on the Planet” in 2017, the hall withdrew from the competition, fearing for its health, but now intends to re-form for the sake of a boxing match. Björnsson is an active strongman, who has more than one world record and many victories in power athletics tournaments.
After the fight was officially announced, the fans were delighted. This fight can go down in history as well as the meeting of Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, with whom Björnsson once held a friendly sparring.
However, they will not be the first strongmen who decided to try their hand at the ring. In November 2019, their colleague Mikhail Koklyaev held a boxing match with MMA fighter Alexander Emelianenko, but was defeated in the first round. Björnsson and Hall will have to try not to disappoint the fans, but they still have almost a year and a half ahead for training, which should go with emphasis on boxing and work on endurance.