I know there are some combat sports fans who believe the Eddie Hall vs. Thor Bjornsson showdown was the bottom rung on the celebrity boxing ladder, but I can assure you there’s still a long way to go before we hit ground.
Sajad Gharibi is booked to compete against Martyn Ford on Sat., April 30, 2022 inside O2 Arena in London, England, a heavyweight headliner (somehow) sanctioned by the Professional Boxing Association to be contested across four, two-minute rounds.
Gharibi is known as the “Iranian Hulk” and rose to Instagram fame by looking thick and swole in photos that may or may not be doctored. Ford is an English bodybuilder who bills himself as “The World’s Scariest Man” because of his 6’8”, 320-pound physique.
Ahead of their titanic tilt, Gharibi and Ford came face-to-face at a special media event in Dubai. Let’s just say it did not end well for the short-and-stocky “Hulk,” who not only failed in his berserker blitzkrieg, but also got two-handed into another dimension.
It was so humiliating that Gharibi has been disowned by his parents.
“I cannot call my family; when I returned I didn’t go to my family,” Gharibi said (via Talk Sport). “I can’t talk to my father and my mother, when I spoke to her, she said: ‘The person in this video that I saw was not my son, my son is way stronger than this’. It hurts my heart when I can’t talk to my family. I have lost my pride and I am destroyed.”
“How can I explain? They deceived me and I fell to the ground,” Gharibi continued. “My family said that you will go there and finish him. They expected the other way around. How can I sleep or get any rest? I personally feel very bad and I cannot sleep but I am now taking sleeping pills.”
Even Ford is having second thoughts.
“I am asking the question if he genuinely wants to fight me? Because I don’t want to step in the ring and be perceived as a bully and seen as intimidating someone who hasn’t put the same work in as I have,” the part-time actor said during a recent presser. “I expect if he is serious about fighting then he gets his ass into gear because I don’t want to disappoint people at the event.”
Here’s the current boxing lineup for the April 30 event.
Main Event:
Martyn Ford vs Sajad Gharibi
Undercard:
Patrice Evra vs Adam Saleh
Jamie O’Hara vs Kris Boyson
Jack Fincham vs TBC
James English vs TBC
Jess Bays vs TBC
Elijah Niko vs Keegan Hirst
Theo Campbell vs Connagh Howard
Brad Scott vs Conan Barbaru
AJ Bunker vs Carla Jade
Ventour vs Jacques Fraser
Frank London vs TBC
Expect the remaining bouts to be finalized in the coming days.
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