Perhaps the single biggest surprise is the fact that last night’s heavyweight – as in super-heavyweight – grudge-match between Thor Bjornsson and Eddie Hall made it all the way to the final bell. Colliding in Dubai last night, Bjornsson, 335 pounds, and Hall, 313 pounds, competed in a fight dubbed “The Heaviest Boxing Match In History” (it wasn’t – Butterbean and a fellow named Joe Siciliano together weighed a gargantuan 730 pounds when they fought some years ago!)
Bjornsson got the win over six rounds, scoring a unanimous decision where he scored two knockdowns over his rival yet was given a count himself. The fight had been two years in the making and to be fair the action was quite entertaining and both men came to fight, not to hug and hold and wrestle. Hall was not only dropped twice, he also suffered two cut eyes and he was clearly beaten – the scores being 57-54 on each of the three official score cards.
Before the fight it was announced how the two giants would box two-minute rounds, instead they fought the standard three-minute rounds. Bjornsson was in trouble in round two, when he was given a count, but the Icelander would go on to dominate. Both guys were feeling the pace, quite understandably when we take into account the weight and bulk both guys were carrying, but Bjornsson paced the fight better and was the more comfortable man in there (he had engaged in previous boxing matches so he was therefore able to relax more so than was his rival).
The bad blood between the two may not have gone away, however, and already there is talk of a rematch. If the rematch cannot be made, Bjornsson, who says he thoroughly enjoys the sport of boxing, will look for other fights to take.
Going into last night’s fight, fans were convinced someone would fall, instead, these two man-mountains made it a case of, ‘the bigger they are, the harder they don’t fall.’ How far can “Game of Thrones” star Bjornsson go in boxing?
