Strongman Boxing Match: Eddie Hall Vs. Hafthor Bjornsson

Hafthor Bjornsson to box Eddie Hall for over a million dollars, three CrossFit athletes are in the return of the Titan Games, and something is being...

Wednesday, May 6th, 2020

Hafthor Bjornsson to box Eddie Hall for over a million dollars, three CrossFit athletes are in the return of the Titan Games, and something is being put together for a frustrated teen category.

Uh...we may go a little long today. How about this. We’ll talk about Thor and Eddie today and talk about the Titan Games and Teen competition tomorrow. Sound good?

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Wednesday, May 6th, 2020. Don’t forget, links to all of these stories are in the show notes of your friendly neighborhood podcasting app, as well as on WODDITY.com, which is slowly getting a facelift, so mind the construction.

Headlines

Let’s start with the major headlines.

CrossFit Affiliates Let Leases Expire

Emily Beers at Morning Chalk Up wrote a piece on CrossFit affiliates who have had or will have their leases expire while they’re in lockdown. Some gyms are making the hard choice to not renew their leases while they have no membership income, with hopes that they can return or find a new location when they are green-lit to open again.

DUCC Looking at 2021

The Down Under CrossFit Championship has formally moved themselves from a “postponed until further notice” status to a “cancelled and returning in 2021” status. They wrote, “We are mindful of the health and safety of all athletes and staff and the continued efforts by the community. We will reschedule the Championship for 2021 with all currently qualified and registered athletes remaining on the athlete rosters.”

Buttery Bros Turn 50

In celebration of their 50th episode, the Buttery Bros (Marston Sawyers and Heber Cannon) hosted a call with the Marquez brothers (Tommy and Julian Marquez) and drop in on Scott Panchik. They mix up the Filthy 50 workout to make it Fuego 50 or Cinco De Butter. Congrats to them on fiddy episodes. That’s a crazy number considering they’re putting together 30 quality minutes every week, along with somehow releasing a feature-length documentary in their free time. And having knee surgery.

Marston Sawyers of the Buttery Bros films the sprint event at the 2019 CrossFit Games

McIntyre Sets Sights on Murph Record

There’s a fun story developing in the land of Murph. If you don’t follow Hunter McIntyre after his 2019 wildcard invite to the CrossFit Games ended in an early cut, he’s been pretty adamant about continuing to grow in the sport. This time he’s set his sights on a world record Murph time. Something I believe he’s actually already achieved, but his goal is to complete the workout on Memorial Day in under 30 minutes. You can follow the “Making Murph” journey on his YouTube channel. It looks like he’ll be featuring a couple of big name athletes heading up to and while completing the big event.

Actress, Inspired by Documentary, Tries CrossFit Workout

And closing things out for headlines is a fun little tidbit. If you’re a fan of TV shows and the occasional film...and good luck getting out of that category...it’s possible you’ve heard of actress Katee Sackhoff. Let’s see here...she’s been in everything from 2013’s Riddick to arguably her first major role as Starbuck in the 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot, Netflix’s 2019 Another Life, Oculus, and Longmire. 

Well, Sackhoff watched The Fittest documentary by the Buttery Bros and got jacked up and ready to go. She found a workout Noah Ohlsen had posted and, in turn, posted a video doing that workout to her YouTube channel. Jumping jacks, push up shoulder taps, jump squats, jump lunges, and sit-ups. Good for her, trying something new and embracing the energy and inspiration from the documentary.

Eddie Hall and Hafthor Bjornsson to Box

Now, let’s talk about this strongman boxing event. If you don’t follow that realm super closely, you’re not alone. Neither do I. Here’s some back story. In 2017, Eddie Hall beat out Hafthor Bjornsson for the title of World’s Strongest Man and simultaneously became the first man ever to deadlift 500 kilograms. Bjornsson tried to beat that attempt at another event and failed, while using a different type of bar and was heavily criticized. Now, this weekend, Hafthor officially beat the record with a 501 kilogram deadlift. The problem is that he did it in a controlled environment, while Hall did it at an event. With all the trash talking back and forth, things really heated up.

After successfully completing the lift, Bjornsson announced he had received a seven-figure offer to box Hall and intended to sign it. In return, Hall posted a video to his YouTube channel counter-signing the contract and talking a little trash. This audio is courtesy of Eddie Hall. Apologies for the language.

[Eddie Hall Clip]

I also have links to commentary from Armen Hammer and the Team Richey YouTube channels in my show notes.

ArmenRichey

Overall consensus is that Bjornsson has the height and weight advantage, but Hall is in much better shape after retiring. Boxing is cardio-heavy and that’s not really something strongmen are known for. While Hafthor is still competing, he’ll probably not be as metabolically capable as Hall and rely on trying to get one really strong hammer down. Unless he starts training with Annie Thorisdottir. We’re all looking forward to it.

Annie Thorisdottir is a two-time CrossFit Games champion, representing Hafthor Bjornsson's native Iceland.

And that’s it for news about CrossFit for Wednesday, May 6th. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. Behave yourselves out there, and check back tomorrow for more about this CrossFit Games teen competition alternative and the three CrossFitters competing in the second season of the Titan Games with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Peace, peace, y’all.