07 June 2024 , 21:48
1058
0
Strongman Eddie Hall made an eye-catching MMA debut on Friday night - by beating TWO men in a handicap match.
Hall, 36, was crowned the World's Strongest Man back in 2017, returned to combat sports for the first time since losing to bitter rival Hafthor 'The Mountain' Bjornsson in a boxing match at the World Freak Fight League event in Blackburn. He took on the Neffati Brothers, Jamil and Jamel, in a two-on-one match. And after a slow start to the bout which basically involved the brothers evading Hall for the opening two rounds, the British bruiser emphatically KO'ed one of his opponents to win in style.
After suplexing one brother to the ground, Hall fended off an attack from the other fighter before knocking the the first brother unconscious with a deadly right hand. The result was vindication for Hall, who had grown frustrated with the brother's reluctance to engage in the previous rounds.
Tensions flared in a press conference in the build-up to the fight, too, when Hall was slapped by one of the brothers. He responded by throwing somebody at the brothers as security guards intervened.
Hall vowed before the fight that he would "knock both brothers out". He said: "Training has been pretty hard, it's double the cardio. You've got two eyes on you and four fists, you've got to keep moving all of the time. I've really struggled to find people as small as them, my 11-year-old son is bigger than the pair of them put together. I'm going to knock one of them out, then pick him up and knock the other out with him."
Eddie Hall starts his journey from former World's Strongest Man to bodybuilding
The Neffati Brothers, meanwhile, expressed their disbelief that Hall had agreed to take the fight against them. They said: "I'm surprised he took the fight, I thought he was bigger. He keeps saying he's going to do this and that, but he is so slow. We've been training with professional fighters, not teddy bears like me. I can imagine after 45-seconds he is going to want help sent for him or throw in the towel and go crying."
Speaking after the fight, one of the brothers reflected on the knockout and said: "It must have been a good punch as I cannot remember anything. People were shouting at me from the crowd and I shouted back you come and f****** him, see if you can do it!"