Eddie Hall‘s first real MMA fight was incredibly entertaining. Hall, of course, is a legendary strongman and won the 2017 World’s Strongest Man competition, as well as being the first man to deadlift 500 kg (1102 pounds) in 2016. But now, he has put his eyes on glory in a different sport—mixed martial arts. The English strongman made his MMA debut against Polish strongman-turned-mixed-martial-artist Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW 26 on April 26.
The Newcastle-Under-Lyme resident absolutely demolished the Polish MMA fighter, staggering him with a hard right early then tossing him halfway across the ring before finishing things with some brutal ground and pound. Hall is already pretty beloved in the fight community, too, because of his incredibly entertaining YouTube channel and crossover episodes with the likes of Tom Aspinall and Tommy Fury. This is why so many are so interested to understand if he has any future MMA plans, including former UFC champ Michael Bisping, who discussed Hall’s UFC prospects at length on his YouTube channel.
“This is an interesting question—should there be a super heavyweight division? Yeah I don’t know mate. He was asked about fighting Francis Ngannou—Eddie Hall—and he said, ‘No, not really interested in that.’ But he did say that he is kind of interested in signing with the UFC. Obviously he’d have to lose some weight big time because he’s a big fella, he’s a big old boy. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll answer my own question I’ll tell you why they haven’t got a super heavyweight division—because it’d be terrible.” ‘The Count’ said.
Hall weighed in at 334 pounds, way over the MMA heavyweight division limit of 265 in the UFC, where his good friend Tom Aspinall is the interim champ. So at the moment, there is little chance Hall could compete in the UFC. Moreover, it does not seem like Hall wants to join the UFC. We cannot actually find any evidence of him saying that he wants to join the UFC, as Bisping claims, and his post-fight comments also indicate strongly that is not the direction he wants to go in.
In fact, the incredibly entertaining strongman has said that he wants to “fight the freaks” even expressed interest in a 2 v 4 since he wants “to have fun.” But even apart from Eddie Hall, there are guys like Brian Shaw—another incredibly entertaining strongman—who are interested in fighting.
WARSZAWA 28.03.2025 KSW. MMA. Spotkanie medialne przed gala XTB KSW 105 COMBAT SPORTS – Media meeting before the XTB KSW 105 gala MARIUSZ PUDZIANOWSKI MARTIN LEWANDOWSKI EDDIE HALL MATEUSZ BOREK FOT. MARCIN SZYMCZYK/FOTOPYK/NEWSPIX.PL /NEWSPIX.PL — newspix.pl PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxPOL
Not to mention if, given he has a chance to fight at the world’s biggest stage of fighting, i.e., the UFC, many more really big men might be favorably disposed to giving MMA a try. So why doesn’t the UFC just have a super-heavyweight division? Well, Bisping feels there’s just not enough big enough guys to justify it in the UFC.
Bisping explains why Eddie Hall will probably never fight in the UFC
“It’d be terrible, you know. It’s hard enough in the heavyweight division having like elite guys, you know what I’m saying. So bringing in a super heavyweight division, there’s not many people that they could fill it with other than guys that are maybe, you know, either overweight or guys that are on juice, you know what I’m saying. So there’s not really a need for it,” Bisping added.
Indeed, skill-wise, the heavyweight division is perhaps the weakest in the UFC. Most guys have one-punch knockout power, and the fights there are usually a race to a knockout. And having an even heavier division would not be a good idea because of how few 270+ pounders there even are in MMA. If you’re that big, you will usually find more success and more money in football or basketball.
This means that Hall, even if he wants, can’t fight in the UFC. The man is just too big and too bulky to have a chance of making 265. Even if he tries his best, kills himself, and somehow does weigh in at 265, that really won’t be much fun for him. And having fun is one of his main objectives in MMA. What do you think about Michael Bisping’s thoughts on Eddie Hall’s UFC future in the sport?
The post “It’d Be Terrible” – Eddie Hall’s UFC Debut Plan Hits a Brick Wall as Dana White’s Stance on a ‘Super Heavyweight’ Division Cleared Up appeared first on EssentiallySports.
