Eddie Hall continues to train with the best ahead of his MMA debut.
The former World’s Strongest Man recently visited the UFC Performance Institute and shocked everyone by breaking Alex Pereira’s punching record.
During his trip to Las Vegas, Hall bumped into Alexander Volkov, who is the #6 ranked UFC heavyweight and has fought Tom Aspinall, Derrick Lewis, and many other MMA stars.
‘The Beast’ got to test his world record punching power on Volkov, and on Tuesday he shared their sparring footage to his YouTube channel.
The two men started by just hitting each other with body shots.
They lightly tapped away and giggled throughout a friendly first round before deciding to take things up a notch in the second frame by introducing left-handed headshots.
“I’m exhausted already,” Hall admitted in between rounds. “He’s just playing with me. He could literally just keep his distance and wear me down within a minute or two.”
The 6ft 7in Russian fighter, who is aptly nicknamed ‘Drago’, relentlessly pressed forward, and prodded away at his opponent’s face with his jab.
Volkov wasn’t putting any power on his strikes, so Hall was content eating a few to try and return with big power shots, which he did manage to land on occasion.
The third round was ‘anything goes’ and was fought at a high pace.
Volkov happily sat in the pocket and traded with a man who weighed 31 stone at the height of his strongman career.
Hall was throwing big shots and even though he missed most of them, he did catch Volkov on the chin with punches that would drop lesser men.
In the end, the Englishman was happy to hear the final bell.
Hall said after the spar: “Thank f*** for that. Jesus!”
“F*** me! I’m gassed. He just smothered me. Did you see how he was just leaning on me constantly, not allowing me to breathe?
“It was great. It’s like keeping that pressure on me all the time. At no point could I take a breath – he was just on me all the time.”
Volkov was impressed by the MMA newcomer’s power.
He said: “You have a hard punch. I felt it a few times. You’re pretty dangerous.”
Volkov is not the first top-flight MMA fighter Hall has sparred with.
Aspinall, who beat Volkov in March 2022, has shared the cage with him before.
Hall was supposed to put his MMA training to the test earlier this year against the current World’s Strongest Man, Mitchell Hooper, as part of a four-man tournament also featuring Martyn Ford and Brian Shaw.
Unfortunately, the event was scrapped, but Hall is still training hard and sparring the very best as he waits for a new fight date.
News Summary:
- Eddie Hall shares footage from sparring session with top UFC heavyweight Alexander Volkov
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.