England vs Iceland.

The Beast vs The Mountain.

World’s Strongest Man 2017 vs World’s Strongest Man 2018.

From whichever angle you look at the upcoming fight between strongmen Eddie Hall and Hafthor Bjornsson, it looks unmissable.

The ‘World’s Heaviest Boxing Match’ is set to be staged in Paradise Nevada at some point in September 2021, and expectations are building.

Yet, it is easy to forget that neither of these competitors has a single boxing credit to their name. While their background in strongmen competitions may place them in a slightly more credible position than YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI, it has not stopped MMA commentator and podcast host Joe Rogan from criticising Eddie Hall’s training technique.

In a recent episode of his podcast, Rogan and guest, CrossFit legend Mat Fraser, watched footage of Hall’s recent boxing workouts.

It is fair to say that Rogan was not impressed with how ‘The Beast’ was training.

“That’s not good,” Rogan observed. “Right away we’re seeing that we have a real problem. Yeah, this is terrible. He’s very rudimentary, but also you see that his body is very stiff.

“Looking at him sparring there, he’s just not moving so good… This is super stiff. He’s throwing these punches with his arms. These are arm punches, almost like he shouldn’t be hitting things.”

Eddie Hall was quick to respond and seemed unfazed by the criticism.

“Look man, people can speculate, they can make assumptions, they can guess, they can do whatever they want, but I’m knocking Thor out. There’s no doubt in my mind. So, people can say whatever they want.

“I take no offence to Joe Rogan’s comments. He’s an experienced guy, he knows what he’s talking about, but he doesn’t know the full picture. You look at a few clips, you can’t make assumptions from that.

“It doesn’t bother me in the slightest, it doesn’t put me off,” Hall continued. “I hope it gives Thor more confidence, because he needs it. He’s in deep trouble. And I’d still love to go on The Joe Rogan Show and tell him a story for everyone to hear.”

Hall was then also quick to play down any chance of beef with Rogan, explaining: “I love Joe Rogan, I absolutely do love Joe Rogan."

Was ‘The Beast’ pulling his punches or will Joe Rogan be proved correct? I guess we will have to wait until September!