After nearly two years, plenty of smack talk, and a freak accident injury, the world’s biggest fight is finally set on the calendar. Former World’s Strongest Man winners Eddie Hall of the UK and Hafthor Björnsson of Iceland have picked a date for their long-awaited grudge match. The rivals both shared Instagram posts with the details about the contest, confirming the plans to stage the event in March announced earlier this week.
Hall vs. Björnsson is slated to take place on March 19, 2022 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium in the United Arab Emirates. Core Sports, the promotion putting on the event, also shared out the promo post on Instagram. Full details, including undercard competitors and pay-per-view information and timing, are slated to be announced later.
Björnsson, who has had an extensive training cycle complete with three exhibition fights since the first time the clash was announced in May 2020, waxed poetic about the event in his Instagram post confirming the date. “It’s been a long journey, almost two whole years from the day I announced this fight. It hasn’t always been easy but I’ve loved every minute of it. I’m extremely excited and looking forward for this day to finally come,” he wrote.
Hall was much quicker to state his intentions for the match in his own caption. “THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER! MARCH 19TH, ITS GAME OVER FOR THOR,” he wrote in all-caps.
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The bad blood between Hall and Björnsson stretches back to their World’s Strongest Man days (both have retired from strongman competition), but the feud became a public spat in early 2020 as Björnsson readied to make his attempt at breaking Hall’s 500 kilogram deadlift record. Since the attempt wasn’t part of an officially sanctioned event, Hall referred to the pull as a ‘gym’ lift, and spoke out against recognizing the pull as an official record. Björnsson nailed the 501 kilogram lift, then immediately challenged Hall to a fight. Shortly afterward, Hall accepted, and a September 2021 date was set for the match.
The two leviathan strongmen then set out to transform themselves into boxers, shedding mass and working with coaches, documenting every step of the way on their social media platforms. Calamity struck when Hall suffered a freak biceps detachment injury in late July 2021, putting the fight on hold. Björnsson swapped opponents on the original date to fight armwrestling champ Devon Larratt instead, besting the sub in the first round via technical knockout. This gave Hall even more material for trash talking, as he called Björnsson’s performance “dogshit” on social media.
After such a long buildup, there’s plenty of pride on the line. But there’s more than just bragging rights at stake. Hall and Björnsson have both pledged to donate $200,000 to charity, and after a contentious exchange on social media (in which Hall suggested the loser donate $1 million, too) the pair agreed that the loser will have to get the other man’s name tattooed on their body with the title “World’s Strongest Man,” according to BarBend.
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