After a frustrating couple of rounds, Eddie Hall managed to land a vicious set of knockouts in his bizarre cage debut tonight.
Having competed in a double-team bout before on Poland’s FAME MMA, the brothers knew what they were doing and orchestrated a near-perfect game plan. But when Hall managed to land, it took just one punch to put a violent end to proceedings.
Eddie Hall lands brutal one-punch KO as he stops two men in 2v1 MMA debut
The bout started off comically slow, with referees intervening at multiple intervals as the Neffati Brothers kept their distance and at times literally ran around the cage. Given his massive size, Hall was limited in his movement, but knew well enough to keep his back to the cage in order to combat anything sneaky.
But with seconds remaining on the clock, Jamil and Jamel launched their intricately planned attack as they appeared to go for something of a double single-leg takedown. However, Hall immediately manhandled the pair, flinging them both across the cage as the other attacked.
And with one brother clinging on to his lead leg, Hall managed to get off the one clean punch he needed that saw Jamil flop to the floor and referees calling a halt to the action. After the first brother was able to leave the cage with his faculties, the fight was called to continue.
Eddie Hall stops two opponents in one fight as he wins 2v1 MMA debut
Once it was just Hall vs Jamel, the bout seemed an absurd mismatch as he lumbered towards his opponent. The brother had weighed in at just over 147lb, meaning there was a more than 200lb difference between the two for the final seconds of the night.
Wisely, the sole Neffati brother attempted to get on his bike and sprint away from Hall. The plan almost worked, but with seconds to go he was dragged down. Hall almost seemed apologetic in throwing ground-and-pound as his opponent curled up on the floor.
However, referees insisted that he throw something to end the fight, so he threw a couple of light shots that saw it waved off with seconds to go. The crowd went wild, after initially being incredibly frustrated by the comical contest.
It was a night full of stoppages, with not even one of the undercard bouts going the distance including a couples fight where two sets of men and women fought one another at once. The night also included a MMA fight between an Ed Sheeran impersonator and a Stormzy lookalike with a 40lb+ weight difference.
The closest they came to seeing the final bell was Hall’s bout, which was a three-round bout with two-minute rounds. There was also a boxing match without a time limit that went beyond three minutes between Myles Stephenson from Rak-Su and Polish Love Island star Kamil Jagielski.
One match of interest to MMA fans saw former UFC star Chris Fishgold take on boxer Jack Fay in a bout which promised to see the pair fight in three different disciplines. It was first to be MMA, then K1 and finally boxing, but ended by stoppage in the first as Fishgold suffered an injury.