Eddie Hall and Brian Shaw were left with financial losses after their MMA tournament was cancelled.
Hall recently made his MMA debut in a bizarre 2 vs 1 fight with the Neffati brothers, which he ended with a brutal KO.
But it was second time lucky for ‘Beast’ who had been set to compete in an four-strongman cage tournament featuring friends Martyn Ford, Shaw and Mitchell Hooper.
The event was due to take place in February but it collapsed, and now the pair have opened up about their frustrations following the cancellation.
Hall said on Shaw’s podcast: “We got offered an MMA fight, all four of us, to fight each other and the money was life-changing.
“There was no reason to think it was a hoax, and we dedicated six months of your life but it came to a head in January.
“Coming back from that was tough, I was deflated. I’d turned down hundreds of thousands of pounds of work.
“It probably lost me six-figures maybe even closer to seven. So that was a big hit.
“I’ve carried on the fight training and I’m talking to other promoters, but as soon as that was cancelled it was tough.”
Shaw then added: “I’m still feeling that rebound effect myself. I didn’t take it lightly.
“The money and contract that was talked about was real. I had no fighting experience so I had to pump money into coaches and do it seriously.
“They made promises that they never fulfilled, I had a financial loss too but it was also time in life.”
Shaw is widely regarded as one of the strongest athletes of all-time winning the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ competition on four occassions.
He had never fought before but was training in anticipation of making his first appearance in the cage.
It has been a story of cancellations for the strongmen, with Ford having lost out on his boxing debut against Iranian Hulk in 2022.
The latest blow came after Hall revealed that he had lost out on his entire multi-million fight purse for his boxing debut to Thor Bjornsson in 2022.
He was defeated in brutal fashion by his rival being dropped twice but bravely surviving until the final bell where he succumbed to a points decision.
Hall has dipped his toes in the combat sports world since ending his strongman career, having achieved the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ in 2017.
He wants to next fight Mariusz Pudzianowski, and called out the Polish star who has himself fought several times in MMA.
The fight could land on KSI’s Misfits Boxing, who have expressed interest in staging one of his outings.
News Summary:
- Eddie Hall and Brian Shaw reveal substantial ‘financial losses’ after collapse of MMA tournament with Martyn Ford
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