Iranian Hulk has shown off his core strength by taking power punches to his stomach just days away from his fight with Kazakh Titan.
The popular social media star - whose real name is Sajad Gharibi - is making his boxing debut after years of teasing fights which have either never materialised or collapsed at the last minute. Gharibi takes on another polarising figure on social media in Djumanov Almat Bakhytovich, who goes by the nickname Kazakh Titan, this Sunday in Dubai.
Gharibi's clash with Bakhytovich comes three months after his fight with the 'World's Scariest Man' Martyn Ford was cancelled, with the Brit pulling out over mental health concerns related to Gharibi. The Iranian is known for his bizarre training methods, most of which don't involve any sort of boxing, but a recent video has shown Gharibi taking some extremely hard body punches from his coach Hamzeh Moradian.
Judging by Gharibi's caption, he claims that his coach Moradian is a multiple-time savate world champion, which is a form of French kickboxing. "Under the deadly fists of savate national team captain and champion of seven world medals and five Asian medals I survived in kickboxing and savate I had never experienced such powerful blows before," he wrote.
Hulk used his social media fame to become part of the combat sports world in three years ago when he signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. The Iranian never fought in the bare-knuckle promotion, being unable to confirm that he was "real" after several accusations that Instagram pictures of his muscular frame were photoshopped.
He was also expected to fight Ford that year after the Brit signed with Polish-based MMA promotion KSW, but Gharibi never followed in the footsteps of his rival and the super-heavyweight clash fell through.
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Bakhytovich, who doesn't have the same following as Gharibi with only 32,000 Instagram followers, has posted more training footage than his rival in the lead-up to their fight. It's expected that the pair will weigh a combined weight of around 520lb for their exhibition fight.
Gharibi and Bakhytovich will headline the Wicked N'Bad event in Dubai on Sunday, with the card being available to watch from 6pm UK time. In the co-main event, YouTube star Ryan Taylor - who was disqualified for headbutting his opponent in his last fight - takes on MMA fighter and notorious social media troll Anthony Taylor.
