Thor Bjornsson and Eddie Hall's boxing match attracted a sparse crowd in Dubai on Saturday night.
The massive strongman stars are set to fight at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium, which holds around 5,000 fans, but appear to have drawn just a few hundred for their big grudge fight. Bjornsson noted during a video blog this week that there were capacity limits due to coronavirus restrictions, despite Dubai currently allowing full events.
Earlier in the night, the arena played host to a night of world championship boxing, headlined by Sunny Edwards facing Muhammad Waseem, with former world champion Regis Prograis on the undercard. A much larger crowd attended that event, which took place at a standard evening time in the area.
Bjornsson and Hall, in an effort to make the fight more accessible to fans in the UK and Iceland, made sure to fight at 1am local time, which is 9pm for fans in both of their home countries.
It is the Brit's boxing debut, while Bjornsson has fought three times against arm wrestler Devon Larratt and in exhibitions with Steven Ward and Simon Vallily. The pair have had a rivalry since the 2017 world's strongest man competition, when Bjornsson accused Hall of cheating to win the tournament after he was deducted points for rule infractions.
Both men have predicted an early night for their opponent after they weighed in at more than 600lb combined.
"I'll do whatever it takes to put Thor on the canvas," said Hall. "I've got more heart, more determination, more aggression, more speed, more agility, more punch selection.
"The only thing he's got on me is reach. I'm telling you now, this is going to be a proper fight and in a fight, it's the better fighter that wins."
And Bjornsson added: "I'm the more complete fighter, a technical fighter. I'm going to beat you no matter what. Enough talk, Eddie, it's either put up or shut up."
