The 'Iranian Hulk' Sajad Gharibi may have a new opponent after his planned bout with Martyn Ford was cancelled just on just a few weeks' notice.
Gharibi was set to face Ford in a massive heavyweight clash at The O2 arena, but in controversial circumstances, the event was cancelled. And the pair appear now to be heading in different directions, with Gharibi being called out by a new giant nicknamed the 'Kazakh Titan'.
Djumanov Almat Bakhytovich, an influencer from Kazakhstan, doesn't have quite the following that Gharibi or Ford have accrued, but that didn't dissuade him from appealing for a fight with the 'Iranian Hulk'. He took to social media to call out his rival, declaring that both he and Ford were cowards.
"Hey Sajad," he said in a brief video posted to YouTube calling out the Instagram star. "I am real Hulk, you and Martyn Ford are cowards - let's fight!"
Bakhytovich, from the bustling city of Almaty, claims to be a two-time champion of some sort of body-building tournaments, and has around 21,100 followers on Instagram where he posts photos of his physique and videos of his TV appearances. It pales in comparison to Gharibi's one million, not to mention Ford's 3.9m.
But after the Ford vs Gharibi bout set to take place in London later this month was cancelled, as well as an undercard that was going to feature Patrice Evra boxing YouTuber Adam Saleh in his fighting debut, perhaps he could have found himself a fight.
Ford believes that the bout was cancelled due to concerns over Gharibi's mental health, after the Iranian broke down in tears during an interview in his homeland. There were also fears that the fight would be a monumental mismatch given the pair's limited training footage that showed Ford having a clear advantage.
During a press conference for the event, Gharibi claimed he had been training eagerly and had lost 30lbs in response to Ford's questions over if he was serious over their looming meeting. An interview on Iranian TV later emerged of Gharibi, who had burst into tears after claiming he had been disowned by his parents.
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"I cannot call my family; when I returned [to Iran] I didn't go to my family," a tearful Hulk was seen to say. "I can't talk to my father and my mother, when I spoke to her, said 'the person in this video that I saw was not my son, my son is way stronger than this'. It hurts my heart when I can't talk to my family.
"I have lost my pride and I am destroyed. How can I explain? They deceived me and I fell to the ground. My family said that you will go there and finish him. They expected the other way around. How can I sleep or get any rest?
"I personally feel very bad and I cannot sleep but I am now taking sleeping pills. When a mum says that to her child, how can it be tolerated? There is a lot of pressure, if I got paid even one dollar to do that I can't continue."
Asked by a fan on Facebook why the fight was being cancelled, Ford later replied that there were "concerns on mental well being and also health and safety risk involved with this match up."
