Martyn Ford had cut his weight before deciding to cancel his fight with the ‘Iranian Hulk’
Martyn Ford has put on 11kg (25lb) since stepping on the scales ahead of his cancelled fight with Iranian Hulk in April.
Ford, dubbed by many as the ‘World’s Scariest Man’, was due to make his boxing debut against the Iranian Hulk – real name Sajad Gharibi – on April 30 at the O2 Arena in London.
However, after weeks of buildup and many more months of training, the bout was cancelled over concerns for his opponent’s physical shape and “mental wellbeing.”
Ford has yet to find a replacement opponent and has paused his boxing training programme to focus on his acting career and normal fitness regime.
As a result he has put on some weight, as he discussed in a recent Instagram post in which he said he was “so happy.”
He wrote: “154 KG / 340lb. It’s incredible what a happy mind can do, the last few months, my food has been off (difficultly living in a hotel room), training has been consistent but it’s been in a commercial gym with no training partner. Work has been amazing but extremely tough physically and sleep deprived.
“However I have been so happy, so great full and had absolutely zero stress while I’ve been here. And my god it shows in my results. Not only that, having a clear focus and a solid purpose to train. Bulgaria has been amazing for me, for so many reasons, appreciate each and everyone of you who has added to this incredible experience.”
Before the fight with Gharibi was called off, Ford had weighed in at 143kg.
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Speaking in April, the 39-year-old, who is 6ft 9in, said: “This is a statement I didn’t want to have to release but unfortunately my fight is going to be postponed. The event is still on, it’s just my fight.
“The event will still go ahead and there are some great people and fights on. Unfortunately mine won’t be one of them, for reasons out of my control. It doesn’t take a genius to figure them all out
“I don’t want to go down the route of talking about it; too much time and energy has been wasted.
“I’m still training hard, there will be a debut. there will be a fight, I’m just not 100 per cent sure who, when or why, but it will happen.”
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Ford explained that one of the reasons for him cancelling the fight was that he didn’t want to be responsible for the death of his rival if he opted to take his own life following the bout.
He also revealed that he missed out on a sum in the region of seven figures, but said: “It wasn’t worth the gamble if he had taken his own life but that would have been 100 percent down to me.
“I am sure he is very depressed at the moment and I wouldn’t want to be someone who adds to it. It was money that I had been promised but never had so I don’t miss it. Once that face-off happened for me it was embarrassing, he was absolutely sh****** himself and he was shaking.
“I don’t want to fight someone who can’t fight that is not going to be fair. But there has to be an element of fairness and it just wasn’t there.”
Ford has held talks with Thor Bjornsson about a potential fight, but issues between Bjornsson and Ford’s friend Eddie Hall are currently holding up any progress in talks.
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