After reaching out to numerous management companies and sponsors involved in the highly anticipated second exhibition match for Hafthor Björnsson, it was Core Sports who were kind enough to grant me a media pass for the weigh in and fight itself.
Following on from a sold out first event in Dubai at the Conrad hotel in January. Björnsson and Steven Ward (an ex-WBO European light-heavyweight champion and cruiserweight fighter) battled it out in a 3x 3 minute round match. It was now the turn of Simon Vallily to enter the ring, a Gold medal winner as a part of Team England at the 2010 Commonwealth games in Delhi, in the heavyweight category.
For anyone that doesn’t know, Icelandic born ‘Thor’ as he is better known, is a former European Strongest man, World’s Ultimate Strongest man and holder of the Arnold Strongman classic, the first man to hold all 3 titles in one calendar year.
If the Worlds Strongest man competition isn’t your cup of tea ( although do give it a chance, it is an addictive watch ), some may recognise Thor as Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane from the multi award winning HBO series, Game of Thrones, in which he was a part of for 5 seasons.
In addition to this mightily impressive CV, he recently deadlifted 501kg and set a new deadlift world record in May 2020. The sheer thought of this makes my lower back and hamstrings want to cry.
This guy, he is kind of a big deal.
When entering the transformed hotel ballroom complete with almost to ceiling screens, smoke machines, a fully fledged ring and tables of expats and boxing fans who were enjoying their ‘brunch with a punch’ option, it was great to witness some sporting atmosphere in which could pass as being ‘back to normality’. A credit to the Dubai Government, the Dubai Sports Council and all organisers involved for leading the way in hosting a number of boxing events over the past 6 months in the region.
My first live experience of boxing was the fight between Dutchman Anthony De Bruijin and Emmanuel Mensah of Ghana, with the man from the Netherlands also voicing his belief in his national football team going all the way at the Euro’s this summer.
Following this, we saw the professional debut of Jamie King against the Egyptian Medhat El Housny, this lasted just 15 seconds with a deadly left hook and K.O going in favour of King, met with a raucous round of cheering from the crowd.
The event saw a host of sporting royalty present, the Spanish goalkeeping legend dubbed to have won it all, Iker Casillas and his friend and former Real Madrid captain Míchel Salgado were there to enjoy the evenings offerings. Also attending was Seb Eubank, son of former WBO Middle weight and Super- middle weight title holder, Chris Eubank and watching from the side was Powerlifter Larry Wheels, who has a following of 2.4 million on Instagram.
Back to the showcase fight, 4x 3 minute rounds saw each fighter’s chin tested with punches landed and at one point, the Icelandic giant did take a tumble. However, as an exhibition fight, no scores were recorded and Vallily was quick to pay compliments to the Icelandic fighter on his hard work “Credit to Thor. I saw his last fight and since then he has put in a lot of work and definitely improved. He has got a lot of potential. He was awkward and a big lump, and when he was getting physical you can feel the difference definitely.“
The two exhibition matches are in preparation for what is dubbed to be ‘The Heaviest Boxing Match in History’ between Björnsson and fellow Strongman winner, Eddie Hall nicknamed ‘The Beast’, which is set to take place in Las Vegas in September
The Mountain had some words of advice for Hall before he left the ring, “you better be training because I’m coming for you and I’m knocking you out. I respect you as an athlete but I’m going to knock you out. See you soon.“
A well organised event which was also free to view through Core Sports World, further confirmation that this is only the beginning of World class sporting events returning to Dubai in a post pandemic world.
