Iranian Hulk 's trainer says the social media celebrity was so unconfident in his boxing abilities that he didn't want to take part in public classes.
Hulk - real name Sajad Gharibi - was stopped in the opening round of his ring debut against fellow internet rival Kazakh Titan - real name Djumanov Almat Bakhytovich - in the main event of Wicked N' Bad's white-collar event last month. It was evident from the opening bell that Gharibi was not fit enough to throw a punch, with Bakhytovich being the better prepared of the two super-heavyweights.
The Iranian's trainer Hamzeh Moradian has admitted that Gharibi was "too shy" to come to his boxing classes when preparing for the fight. Moradian was forced to find a private gym to host one-to-one sessions with Gharibi, also admitting the Iranian wanted to pull out of the fight just days before the event.
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"He was way too shy to come to my public classes and we had to find a gym or somewhere so he could be by himself and be trained until he was good enough," Moradian said. "After we met and I realised that Sajad’s agent knows nothing about sports and does it only as a side business and does not have any knowledge about sports. He had signed a contract with this boxing company in Dubai and Sajad is supposed to go and fight.
"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."
Gharibi's man-mountain of a physique had been questioned by fans in the lead-up to the fight, with the Iranian facing claims his pictures had been photoshopped. He chose to keep his t-shirt on for the fight despite the pictures of his muscular frame on social media. The fight was stopped with just seconds remaining in the opening round, with Gharibi later apologising for his performance by writing: "I hope, again, that you forgive me. I wanted to make you proud but I didn’t predict all this."
