Former world's strongest man Eddie Hall marked his return to combat sports with a brutal and bizarre victory against two opponents in a single fight at Blackburn’s King George’s Hall.
Standing at 6ft 3in and weighing 23.5 stone, Hall faced social media superstars, the Neffati Brothers, in an MMA match organized by the World Freak Fight League. This event marked the 36-year-old's return to combat sports after his defeat by strongman rival Hafthor ‘The Mountain’ Bjornsson in a boxing match two years ago. Hall, hailing from Staffordshire, squared off against Jamil and Jamel Neffati, who boast 19 million followers on TikTok.
The Polish-born brothers were significantly outweighed by their giant opponent—Hall weighed in at 26.2 stone while the brothers' combined weight was just 20.7 stone.
The fight started slowly, with the first two rounds seeing little action as the brothers largely avoided engagement and Hall struggled to catch them. However, in round three, the brothers launched an attack, which quickly turned problematic when Hall picked one of them up and slammed him into the floor.
The fight was briefly halted to check on the downed Neffati brother, who was then carried out of the cage before the match continued. Hall then dropped the other brother; a takedown and a ground strike later, the referee stopped the fight and declared Hall the winner.
The evening also featured other notable bouts, including Ed Sheeran lookalike Ty Jones, aka ‘Sheeranator,’ fighting Stormzy lookalike Papa Snow. Ben Hatchett and Megan Olivia faced Whitney and Joel Ainscough in a couple's fight, while Salim Chiboub and Radoslaw Wolan also competed.
In the ‘No Time Limit’ category, Kamil Jagielski faced Myles Raksu, the ‘OG Freak Fight’ saw Jakub Szymanski battle Tadeas Vesely, and the ‘Mixed Rules’ match featured pro boxer Jack Fay against MMA pro Chris Fishgold.
Blackburn with Darwen councillor Zamir Khan expressed his enthusiasm for the event, saying, “I think it’s great. I’d love to see more of these events come to Blackburn. I remember when I was a kid, I went to watch Giant Haystacks fight Big Daddy, so it’s nice to have something to bring back these events with national coverage. Of course, I’d love to see more of these fights because why not?”
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