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Hafthor Bjornsson has praised Mike Tyson, Canelo Alvarez, and Tyson Fury ahead of his return bout against Eddie Hall.
'The Mountain' is set to return to the ring this month against his fellow strongman to settle a years-long beef between them. Ahead of the bout, he's been studying some of the greats of the squared circle to improve his boxing ability.
In an interview with Joe, the former strongman shared who his favorite boxers are and what he's learned from them. Showing love to some boxing legends new and old, he said:
"A guy I like to watch is Mike Tyson. Like, he was very aggressive. He came inside with the body shots, uppercuts, always throwing combinations. Nowadays, I love to watch guys like Canelo, 'GGG', Tyson Fury. There's a lot of great fighters that I like to watch. Old ones, and the ones that are active today."
Watch Hafthor Bjornsson's interview with Joe in the video below:
Hafthor Bjornsson and Tyson Fury met in December 2021
While Hafthor Bjornsson may love watching Tyson Fury, he wouldn't enjoy fighting 'The Gypsy King' in the ring. The two met earlier this year, and the WBC Heavyweight champion offered to train with him.
While 'The Mountain' initially seemed enthusiastic to train with the champion, he hasn't as of now. He's instead stayed in training with his current team and hasn't been seen with Fury behind their initial December 2021 meeting. If the two giants did train, Bjornsson admitted, it wouldn't go well for him.
The strongman-turned-boxer discussed potentially training with Fury with iFL TV's Andrew McCart. While he may be a fan of the WBC Heavyweight champion, he acknowledged that he would be beaten badly. He said:
"He would beat me to bits but I would definitely take it and I would definitely learn and get better. The only downfall would be that I would get beaten. The good side is I would learn from it. Everytime you get beat, you get better. You know, I atleast believe that. I train with better guys and I get better. That's my mentality."
Bjornsson's modesty is commendable, and it has shown why he's improved so quickly in the ring. While his first two ring walks led to draws, 'The Mountain' scored a big knockout win over Devon Larratt in his most recent fight in September 2021.
