The Second Hafthor Bjornsson Drops Opponent With Ideal Hand In Boxing Debut

Hafthor Bjornsson, acknowledged by quite a few as ‘The Mountain’ from Match of Thrones, manufactured his eagerly anticipated boxing debut before this 7 days versus former WBO European mild-heavyweight winner Steven Ward.

The 32-year-outdated, who has reportedly lost a amazing 110lb since the Corridor fight was formally declared, looked in great form in the three moment, a few round fight.

And in the second, he dropped his opponent with a powerful right hand, while it bizarrely hit Ward on the shoulder blade, which prompted him to tumble around.

Ward, who put on a dominant display in his previous skilled battle – a extremely-predicted cruiserweight debut against Jone Volau in September, gave Bjornsson some important working experience in the ring.

The Belfast-born fighter strike ‘The Mountain’ with a variety of reliable physique shots and even left the previous strongman with a bloody nose.

But he was floored for a brief minute when Bjornsson connected with a right hand to the back again/shoulder blade.

You can see that correct instant of the fight at 54:04 in the below livestream.

So how did this uncommon bout in between ‘Thor’ and Ward materialise?

The Irishman was to start with introduced to Bjornsson in Belfast when he was executing some filming and ever due to the fact, the pair have held in touch despite the fact that he didn’t basically know who he was at very first.

“When they first explained to me about meeting him [Bjornsson] in Belfast, when this all started, they mentioned that I’ll go down and satisfy ‘The Mountain’. My reply was ‘who the hell is The Mountain?’ They mentioned ‘Thor’ and I just laughed to be honest.” Ward advised SPORTbible ahead of the battle.

“I would hardly ever heard of him. I never check out Game of Thrones but he was there and that is where it all started.”

The 30-calendar year-aged, who trains out of Belfast and Manchester at VIP Gymnasium, was concerned in Freddie Flintoff’s journey in qualified boxing a several many years again and sparred the previous England cricketer in the make-up to his debut struggle from Richard Dawson at the Manchester Arena.

He admits he assumed it was likely to be a related scenario with Bjornsson but items have “escalated” because.

“I just imagined I was likely to be heading about to do some sparring likely, assistance him find out the ropes and give him some practical experience – striving to assist him where by I could. But issues have just escalated from there.” Wards tells us.

“The large man appears to be to be having it very critical and he preferred an prospect to see what it’s like on the night time – to have those people butterflies in the stomach while obtaining that experience of going to the ring.

“You see all these Youtuber’s and things undertaking all these fights but I come across this various. He is an elite athlete – he is the bloody World’s Strongest Man. He is substantial. It can be not like a YouTuber. He’s a experienced athlete in his personal correct and his sport.

“So I believed why not. It really is an prospect for me to go up versus 1 of the world’s strongest males and it really is good for me to enable him out. I was delighted sufficient with the supply.”