The Iranian Hulk's trainer has admitted they tried to pull out of his boxing debut when realising he was not ready to fight his long-time rival, Kazakh Titan.
Kazakh Titan, real name is Djumanov Almat Bakhytovich, was utterly dominant on the night in late July, landing shots to the body and head at will, to the point that the Iranian Hulk, real name Sajad Gharibi, repeatedly turned away from his opponent and the contest was stopped.
“I have nothing to say but I am ashamed and I apologise to the Iranian people,” Gharibi said after the fight.
It was an embarrassment the Iranian Hulk’s coach Hamzeh Moradian tried desperately to avoid but couldn’t due to a strict clause in the contract that would’ve seen them severely penalised for a withdrawal
“After we met and I realised that Sajad’s agent knows nothing about sports and has signed a contract with this boxing company in Dubai and Sajad is supposed to go and fight," Moradian said on Instagram via Mirror Fighting.
"When we talked, I told him that there is no way Sajad can fight. He said 'help him as much as you can' and I said that he can’t do it. I said that I don’t mean to intervene, but I think it’s better if it’s cancelled. When they tried to cancel it, they realised that they can’t do it, because they had to pay a penalty.
"There are rules anyways and people working in sports know that it’s not possible to cancel such events and he had to attend. So, I agreed to help him. We had so little time that I held the training sessions twice a day in the morning and in the afternoon.
"Even some days I picked him up myself. I tried my best to help him but since we didn’t have enough time to get him ready. I saw him under pressure and anxious. It’s really hard to get in the ring through all that pressure and anxiety."
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The Iranian Hulk emerged from nowhere when it was announced that he was going to be fighting professional bodybuilder, Martyn Ford at the O2 Arena.
Ultimately, the fight fell through after the pair clashed in a face-off and Ford easily pushed Gharibi to the ground and it became clear that it may not be a fair fight.
After this incident, footage emerged of the Iranian Hulk breaking down while appearing on a TV show and he revealed he had been disowned by his parents and was feeling suicidal.
Subsequently, Ford called the event organisers and told them that he would no longer be going ahead with the fight, as he didn’t want to be responsible for Gharibi being bullied and taking his own life.
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