Eddie & Thor the battle of the giants - genuinely interesting or a snooze fest?

 This fight has divided the sport of strongman. Many strongman fans fairly blunt on their assessment of the Hafthor Bjornsson vs Eddie Hall boxing match. Most strongman fans are interested in the sport, to quite simply, watch super strong athletes lift unbelievably heavy objects.

The sport of strongman has also, arguably, lost a potential great in Hafthor. His stature, strength and depth in the sport across events could have seen a new Big Z and hall of famer emerge. Laurence Shahlaei even suggested Thor could have been ‘one of the greatest of all time’. Eddie had always maintained his ultimate goal was to win WSM. Not multiple times, but once.

Thor has commented that he will never compete at a Giants Live event again after the controversy of WSM 2017. That doesn’t rule him out of Arnold comps etc but does take him out of one of the sports pinnacle competitions.

Eddies Deadlift world record was a PR masterpiece by Giants live, Eddie and his management team. Like it or not, the 500kg milestone was an iconic moment for the strength world and sport. It shone a spotlight on the sport and propelled Eddie into the media spotlight. Sponsorship, a large social media following and the creation of the BEAST brand.

Both guys went up to huge bodyweights; Eddie 196kg and Thor at 205kg. Both men maintained that weight was unsustainable and understood the negative impact on their health. Up to press both men losing around 50kg in bodyweight, Eddie going for the ‘bodybuilder muscle look’ and Thor just looking leaner.

Other super sized strongmen such as Big Z and Terry Hollands have both cut body weight, Terry astonishingly so, but both agree the weight loss in terms of overall health is sensible. With Oleksi Novikoiv winning WSM 2020, at 6 feet 1 tall and 298 pounds,  sheer size isn’t always a sure bet to be a good strongman.

So it is no surprise a boxing match between the two is viewed by many as a ‘cash in’ by Eddie and Thor. There is no denying this probably will generate a lot of cash. The USP (unique selling point) of this match up seems to be around the size of these two guys.

The rivalry and genuine needle between the two is questionable to some. Many boxers play this card in the run up to matches to help shift tickets, and Eddie and Thor both have a part to play in ‘bigging’ this up’. They were once friends.

You can’t blame them for seeing a unique opportunity to be part of a transition from the sport of strongman to boxing, something that has never been done before. The closest strongman has come to combat has been sumo wrestling in the Bill Kazmier era.

However from a different perspective, and taking away the hype and money elements, there is another school of thought and that makes this interesting. And it is interesting. For me, if they take it seriously who can best adjust to a brand new sport and put on their best performances. That will earn respect from both boxing and strongmen fans.

Both Thor and Eddie are goal driven. They set out their stall in strongman and achieved it, with some equally impressive world deadlift records. Thor has made the transition into some acting (Game of Thrones), and Eddie carving out opportunities to perform in front of Arnold Schwarzenegger building a huge profile and putting strongman on the map.

There approaches are different though. There is a sense Eddie likes to portray the Beast brand through a mix of personable social media posts, strength focused images and fancy pad work. It is a great approach at building a profile and large online following. But other than showcasing training footage I don’t see any footage of Eddie getting his hands dirty in boxing.

Hafthor however is documenting his progress with raw footage showing his lack of boxing skills. He is often seen in interviews with black eyes. Getting down to the nitty gritty of boxing. Taking shots. Taking criticism. Sparring live opponents. He looks exactly like an amateur boxer should do, a bit cumbersome, a little wild and raw. Carl Framptom, former 2 weight world boxing champion, states ' I like the way Thor is learning and taking these fights'.

His fight with professional boxer Steve Ward that took place in Dubai on Friday 15th January 2021 (see full fight here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI1NfKc-EPI)

Make no mistake boxing is a world away from strongmen. Both sports don’t marry up too well. Huge muscle can often mean rigidity. Boxing requires strength balanced with multiple movements, flexibility, speed, punch placement and cardio based stamina.

How many times have you seen a boxing match up and gauged the fight on how ‘ripped’ the athletes are. Jeff Lacey and Joe Calzaghe is a classic example. Jeff was the next Tyson, aesthetically looked amazing and Joe on the other hand didn’t particularly look ‘ripped’. At the weigh in it looked as though Joe was going to get slaughtered.

In the fight Jeff got annihilated. Joe schooled him with speed, punch variety, footwork and stamina. The same goes for Eddie, if he concentrated on strength too much, doesn’t build up in ring experience with live sparring or exhibition fights looks mean nothing.

Thor seems to be doing the right thing. His fight on Friday against professional heavyweight Steve Ward showed us little in terms of boxing skills. It demonstrated to me that Thor is where I would expect him to be. But be in no doubt, that experience for Thor is invaluable. He can use that to sharpen the tools in training and sparring. See Thor interview here via IFLTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa_gDTsBuxM

On this basis, despite the hype spooled out by Eddie and the fancy videos, Thor seems to be taking this more seriously. He isn’t afraid to open himself up to criticism in his pursuit to take this seriously whilst been in the public spotlight. That deserves respect. SEE EDDIE TRAINING VIDEO HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln0G4Py3zQ4

There isn’t much to be said about Eddies progress. He hasn’t showed us anything out of the ordinary antics he gets up to. This may be a front. He maybe keeping things behind closed doors. He talks a good game and will definitely be the PR machine in the war of words that is bound to start.

From a boxing perspective this gets more interesting. I haven’t seen a lot of interest so far in boxing circles. A notable exception was one of the premier boxing channels IFLTV, where interviewer Kugan Cassius interviewed Thor recently. This is a dedicated boxing channel. MTK Global (a major boxing player) are also involved in the fight.

I haven’t seen anything from the other boxing promoters, Eddie Hearn or Frank Warren and doubt this would be of much interest. Certainly not from Frank Warren. I believe if Eddie saw any ‘promoters angle’ he would be involved – but again Matchrooms focus normally stays in boxing.

I also doubt the boxing purists would have much interest. The real audience for this is the casual boxing or strongman fan. The general public that see the sheer size of these two men will inevitable invoke conversation and intrigue. Who will win. Outcome. Intrigue is the key.

The potential interest here could be a PR and promoters approach similar to WWE. The heaviest fight in history. Reinforced ring for example. Special measures in place that mark this boxing match out as different and generating hype. Punch power they can both generate. The behind the scenes documentary boxing has that detail the struggles of both men in the lead up to the fight are a audience captive lever.

Whatever your thoughts it does come with interest. Who is more goal driven?  Who can adapt and learn a sport better?  What weight will they come in at? How long can too huge guys sustain boxing.

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