Iranian Hulk has admitted his parents have disowned him after he was shoved during his face-off with Martyn Ford.
The Hulk - real name Sajad Gharibi - will make his boxing debut against Ford, who is also known as the 'World's Scariest Man'. in London on April 30. Gharibi and Ford met for the first time in Dubai last month, with the pair coming to blows during a heated altercation.
Gharibi has now revealed that his parents refuse to talk to him, and he is now forced to take sleeping pills due to the stress. "I cannot call my family; when I returned [to Iran] I didn't go to my family," Hulk said while bursting into tears on Iranian TV. "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."
Gharibi worried his loyal army of fans with some concerning messages on social media claiming that he "wished for death" and had brought no boxing trainer to Dubai when the face-off took place. Training footage of the star preparing for the clash has also provoked worry that he could be quickly "destroyed" at The O2 arena next month.
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Ford has branded the footage "embarrassing" and is ready to end their rivalry in the boxing ring. However he is unsure if his opponent is serious about the opportunity. "A lot has been said, I am asking the question if he genuinely wants to fight me?," Ford said at a press conference.
"Because I don’t want to step in the ring and be perceived as a bully and seen as intimidating someone who hasn’t put the same work in as I have. If he really wants to do this fight, tell everyone he wants to do this fight and don’t put it on me.
“There is a lot of passion but at the end of the day your face goes in there face-to-face and it is fight or flight. So for me that was a case of ‘do you want to be here as well’ and for me that answer is no. If he agrees to step in and do it he needs to be ready. I expect if he is serious about fighting then he gets his a** into gear because I don’t want to disappoint people at the event."
