Mark Bell's Power Project - Eddie Hall vs Francis Ngannou: Strongest Man Vs Strongest Punch

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Ever wondered who’d win between the World’s Strongest Man and the hardest puncher alive? Dive into this epic clash on Mark Bell’s Power Project Podcast! In Episode 1145, hosts Mark Bell and Nsima Inyang hang out with Eddie Hall, the legendary strongman, to break down a dream matchup against Francis Ngannou.Get ready for insights on raw strength, brutal fighting skills, and intense training routines. Eddie shares his journey from smashing deadlift records to stepping into the fight game, comparing his power to a knockout artist like Ngannou. You’ll hear about mental toughness, strongman history, and wild stories of facing real-life challenges.Special perks for our listeners below!🚨 The Best Red Light Therapy Devices and Blue Blocking Glasses On The Market! 😎➢https://emr-tek.com/Use code: POWERPROJECT to save 20% off your order!👟 BEST LOOKING AND FUNCTIONING BAREFOOT SHOES 🦶➢https://vivobarefoot.com/powerproject🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWER to save 20% off site wide, or code POWERPROJECT to save an additional 5% off your Build a Box Subscription!🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel, and use code POWERPROJECT for 10% off any lab!Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1Pumps explained:   ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast➢ https://www.PowerProject.live➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerprojectFOLLOW Mark Bell➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybellFollow Nsima Inyang ➢ Ropes and equipment : https://thestrongerhuman.store➢ Community & Courses: https://www.skool.com/thestrongerhuman➢ YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=enFollow Andrew Zaragoza➢ Podcast Courses and Free Guides: https://pursuepodcasting.com/iamandrewz➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz/➢ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamandrewzChapters:0:00 Eddie Hall’s Next Fight: Francis Ngannou?   1:00 How Strongman Competitions Have Evolved Over the Years  1:40 Fitness Beyond Strength: Eddie’s Cardio and Swimming Routine  2:27 Mental Preparation and Training Secrets for Peak Performance  3:01 Fighting Background: Eddie’s Transition from Strongman to MMA  4:42 Hardest Punch: Comparing Eddie to Francis Ngannou  8:43 Strongman vs. Fighting: Assessing Each Other’s Strengths  10:24 MMA Style: Eddie Discusses Boxing Tyson Fury and His Fighting Approach  11:23 Leaving Strongman: Why Eddie Retired and Built a New Career  13:17 The Legacy of the 500kg Deadlift and Its Impact on Powerlifting  20:27 Deadlift Training and Equipment Standards in the Sport  22:04 Strength Training Techniques: Speed Pulls, Recovery, and Explosive Lifting  25:19 The Mental Game: Adrenaline and Focus in Competition  27:38 Strongman for Entertainment vs. Ultimate Strength Testing  37:05 Strongman Creates Mutants: Physical Feats and Testing Results  41:12 Swimming’s Role in Fitness, Recovery, and Fight Training  47:09 Why Strength Training Benefits MMA and Grappling for Fighters  50:47 Exploring Sumo, Judo, and Crossover Athletic Potential  54:06 The Challenges of Fame: Managing Privacy and Viral Moments  58:01 Protecting Inner Peace: Confronting Intruders and Viral Backlash  1:02:03 New Career Paths: Acting, YouTube, and Life After Strongman  1:05:01 Future Plans: Eddie’s Next Big Challenges and Fight Opportunities

And there has been talk of me fighting Francis and Ganyu from my next fight, which is scary as fuck because he is one of the most frightening men on the planet. That's why it excites me, you know, because it's the training for it would just be awesome. What is it about Strongman that like turns you guys into such mutants? This professor was like, I've never seen a heart so efficient. That transfers over to so many different things like fighting. You know, I'm able to move this huge amount of mass and do seven minute miles and swim a mile in 22 minutes.

It's just, it's unheard of. Pulling that 500 kilo, you gotta remember I broke the record by 37 kilos. It's certainly more likely than not that in September the whole deadlift debate will be over and I'll hold the all-time deadlift world record. You think Mitchell Hooper can break it? He's got all the tools and he's definitely on track too. Everything's gotta be perfect. Not only physically, I think mentally as well.

I call it the inner piece. Like if you're inner piece as f***, you aren't performing to 100%. You were mentioning that the sport is different. Now, do you think it's different for the better or do you think it's taking away from the strength of Strongman? I think it's better for the athletes but I think it's worse for the sport.

Do you think you'd actually do really well in today's Strongman? I mean look, if I were to walk into Will Strongest Mountain for a few months training, I would make top 30. Top 3 would be two years away. What happened recently when you were chasing some people down the street? Ah, jeez. They were like the third people that day to come and knock on my house and I was just like f*** this. I need to put a f***ing stance on this, you know.

I need to let people know that it's not okay to come to this house. And he looked me dead in the eyes. As he just put his car into gear and was just driving off, he looked me dead in the eyes. He's like, I'll f***ing knock you out. And I just, I just saw red. I was like, f*** this. Did you feel like you were going to die after you ran that mile? 100%.

Yeah. Lips turned blue and everything. And how long ago was that? Quite recently. I stopped running in my camp, so it must have been about three months ago, something like that. But when I'm in camp, I don't run because it's just too risky for pulling your car off and shit.

What kind of cardio do you do? Swimming mainly, and then fight training. Yeah, so you already have a skill set with swimming from when you're young. So might as well use what you're already good at. That's it, and then just lift weights really, really fast. I genuinely believe that's a great cardio session. Just like a really intense weight session is super good for your lungs.

And are you doing other things back and forth in between like particular exercises or are you just trying to like lift the weight quick with short rest? No, so I do like, it's quite popular in the fight world. You do 24 reps, 22 reps, 20 reps, and you try and have like a minute rest in between. And by the time you've done the 20 reps,

the second you're finished, you're onto the next machine, 24, 22, 20. Oh shit. And just keep, like just do five, six exercises and, the second you're finished, you're onto the next machine, 24, 22, 20. And just keep, like, just do five, six exercises, and by the end, you are fucked. Like, your lungs, your heart rate's like 150, 160. Fucks you, but it's good, like, great workout. And is, like, MMA-type stuff, is that something that you maybe have always wanted to do?

I think deep down, yes. I think fighting's been a big part of my life in my youth. I can honestly say I think that in my childhood, I don't think there was many days that went by where I wasn't punched in the face or I punched someone in the face. It was like a very daily occurrence. So growing up and settling down and finding a job and getting to Strongman sort of took me away from that. And it was nice to get back into it. You're going to try to get into it like more.

You said you could have a fight coming up. Yeah. So I mean, I had this fight with Marius and obviously that fight made sense. Like me and Thor fight made sense. You know, it was like Will Strongest Man versus Will Strongest Man. It's just one of those freak fights, you know? And just something that I really wanted. I actually pushed for this fight. I instigated it, made it happen, put the contracts in place. I did it all. I wanted it really bad. And

then it's like, what next? Everyone's like, you know, are you going to go in KSW ranking? You're going to fight us, you know, whenever I'm like, no, I would just want to fight the freaks. I just want to fight the Forbes Johnsons, the Marius Pudnorskis. Something that makes sense. It's like, it's like, what if I went up against, I'll say that KSW champion weighs 100 kilo and I beat him, it's just like, oh yeah, well you beat someone half your size. And if you lose, it's like, yeah, you lost to someone half your size. So you lose, lose when you fight people like that for someone like me. So the freak stuff, you know, like the 2v1 fight I did, that was great fun.

Two guys weighed about, I don't know, 140 pounds each, and that was fun, that was. This kind of stuff's kind of legendary. I mean, this is the kind of stuff people talk about for years, or you just speculate. You're on a playground, and you're like, I wonder if Mike Tyson could beat up three people at one time.

And then you're like, well, what kind of three people are we talking about? Are they three professional fighters as well, or is it, you know, so I think this stuff is super interesting. Brings you back to the gladiator days. It does. And you know what? This is the kind of shit that, I mean, watch this now.

This is fucking great. This is awesome. Oh! Oh shit. They're a lot easier to pick up than a 400 pound stone, it looks like. Yeah. I mean, that was, that was fucking perfect.

Oh my God. And then just, just the corner of my eye. Shit, that was right on the button. Yeah, that was nasty. So yeah, stuff like that. I mean, people, what are the answers to these questions? You know, can Eddie Hall beat two people at once? Can he beat three people at once?

Can he beat four people at once? Can he beat three people at once? Can he beat four people at once? And I guess the 2V1 was just like the start of the journey. And it could progress to 3V1, 4V1, I don't know. But how many people, but like one gorilla versus 100 men. We want to know the answer to that. And I guess this is kind of it. How far can we go?

What is your answer to that? I don't know. I mean, I want to do a three V one thing. I think three V one, like those kinds of conditions would be really fun. Like really fun. I fucking love training for it. Cause you have to be so fit to go into these situations

and like in training training I had two coaches and when they say it's literally double the work it is, like my heart rate was twice as high, like my just my breathing was twice as fast and you're like you're banging one, you're turning, you're banging the other, it is insane. Like it's so much harder. So imagine three of them, fuck that'd be. That's why it excites me, you know, because it's the training for it would so much harder. So imagine three of them, fuck that'd be. But that's why it excites me, you know, because it's the training for it would just be awesome. And then the match itself, great fun. Yeah, it seems like when this kind of stuff happens

with some like YouTube people and stuff like that, then the professionals come out of the woodwork and then they start lining up and they're like, hey, you know, but it doesn't make sense a lot of times because unfortunately sometimes those professionals, they just don't have that big of a name that's really gonna stick and make it like an exciting thing, right?

Yeah, no, exactly that. And after this Marius fight, I've had so many offers and all these names, I'm like, yeah, but they're not, they might be highly ranked fighters, but they're not the Francis and Ganous, these are the Tyson Furies, the Eddie Halls, the Marius Parnoskis, these are the Tyson Furies, the Eddie Halls, the Marius Ponoskis. These are the people I want to fight.

You know, these big massive names. And there has been talk of me fighting Francis and Ganu from the next fight, which is fucking scary as fuck because he is one of the most frightening men on the planet in my opinion. But you know, he got, he did. So this is where it gets fun, right? So Francis Ngannou had the world's hardest punch on the UFC Institute. They call it the power cube. And all these fighters at the UFC Institute hit this power cube all day long, like every

day. They're trying to beat each other on this high score. So he had the record at like 135 or something. And then Alex Pereira, he hit 190 I think. And that's been the record for quite a while. And obviously all these guys are just smashing this cube all day long trying to beat it. And then I went in with Brian Shaw and with just the intention to break this record and within 10 minutes I hit 215,000 I think. So I've got the hardest recorded punch in the world right now. And so is Francis.

Well, you know, that's the sort of claim we both have. So I think that the world's hardest puncher versus the world's hardest puncher is a great matchup. And I want to state very early on that I think my chances are quite low. Like you put me and Francis in a cage, 95 times out of 100 Francis wins, you know, but it's that 5%. You're still a human being at the end of the, if I catch him on the end of the chin square, like you're fucked. I don't give a fuck who you are. You're going down.

You have a better chance of beating him in that probably than he may have beating you in strongman. Oh yeah. Strongman is like probably just, I mean, is there an event that he would be able to do? Is it possible? I mean, he's very strong. He looks, you know, he looks amazing. Very light compared to strongman. That's true, yeah. I mean, could he beat me in any Strongman event? I guess maybe, I guess maybe, huh? Maybe like a carrier something, I don't know.

But in terms of like moving weight from A to B, zero chance, absolutely zero chance. And that's probably what he thinks of you in terms of, you know, fighting you since he's been fighting for the last 12, 15 years. And he's probably right. But it's having the balls to get in there and have a go, is it? Question, how about a Tyson Fury then?

What do you think about that Tyson Fury pure boxing, not MMA? Oh, I wouldn't, no, that'd be, that'd be insane. Because the skill level in boxing and that reach and everything it sort of takes away my attributes. So like my attributes are pressuring, mauling, using my strength, my body weight. I mean, you see what I did to Marius. I just threw him across the ring. So you take away my attributes and just put it boxing like me against Tyson Fury, less

than 1%. Gotcha. You're probably excited for the smashing machine because that seems to be your technique in the ring. Yeah, pretty much. Pick the guy up, throw him on his head and beat the shit out of him. Yeah, hammer fist him in the face

until he stops looking at you. So you, oh, go ahead. At this point though, with strength feats, are you kind of like, when it comes to strength, is there anything that you want to do? Because it seems like right now you're in fighting mode, but do you feel like you'd want to go back to do any Strongman stuff? You'd ever want to go back and try to do even more of a deadlift?

What are your thoughts? In terms of the strength world, I retired eight years ago now. Is that right? Yeah, eight years ago now. Is that right? Yeah, eight years ago. And I've had no, I've had no itch to get back into it at all. Like, as far as I'm concerned, I set my goals, pull the 500 kilo, win the World's Strongest Man.

And those were my two goals. I honestly couldn't give a shit about anything else. So when I won the World's Strongest Man, I literally retired the next day and I never competed again. And I've, you know, I've been the commentating and everything. And I must state that retiring from Strongman was probably the harder of the option. Like of the two options, stay in Strongman or retire.

And retiring, it's like staying in strongman's easy. It sounds daft to say that, but to stay and do what you know you're good at and lift weights and continue to progress in that sport and win more titles, that would have been the easy option. The harder option was to break free from what I'm good at and try and get into a revenues of revenue. You know, use my Will Strongest Man title, use my 500 kilo to get TV shows, endorsements, YouTube. I honestly think that was the harder option, but it was the more sensible option as well.

You know, it's longitivity, financially, it's just health-wise, there's so many benefits to what I've done as opposed to staying into Strongman. It seems like you have a lot of fun doing it too. Whereas like, obviously there's aspects of strongman that are fun, but when you get to your level and you're thinking of 500 kilos and 501 kilos and so forth, it gets to be monotonous and it gets, you got to be super precise the rest of your life has to be on pause. Whereas now, you know, you can make some fun YouTube videos, you can kind of do some skits with some friends, and you can have more of a good time.

Things are way more relaxed, I would imagine. Yeah, 100% way more relaxed, I have more fun, I spend much more time with my family. That pressure's off, and I think that pressure is great in some circumstances, and I would say I've piled the pressure back on with fighting, but with the top level strong man, that pressure is fucking insane. You've gotta be 24, seven, 365 days of the year committed to strongman, eat, sleep, shit it. And if you're not eat, sleep, shit in it,

you're not winning, you're coming second. But I do want to mention, Mitchell did say, because he was just on the podcast, and he mentioned that your 500 kilogram deadlift was kind of like a Roger Bannister moment for the deadlift because he said that after that, so many other people started being able to deadlift like, you know, a thousand. You just see people start to deadlift more weight because they saw somebody deadlift 500 kilos.

So that's even, even if people start deadlifting more than 500 kilos, I think there's something about getting that done that helped that all happen. 100% I think and it is exactly the Roger Bannister scenario where nobody like everyone said running a mile in four minutes was impossible. Everyone's and Roger Bannister's like I think it is and everyone's like you're a dick but you're fucking so deluded like it's going to be like everyone's like 10 seconds off you're fucking off you're fucking so deluded. Like it's going to be like, if everyone's like 10 seconds off, you're fucking off your head. And he went and ran it.

And then within, so that too, however long, like however long mankind has been running to come to that still was it 1950s or 60s? I can't remember. High school kids now doing that. Yes. Exactly. 1954, right? So it took until 1954 to run a mile in four minutes.

And then within two years, like, 20 people had done it. And now it's like a common, as you say, high school kids are doing it. It's just that belief of it's possible makes people train that little bit harder because it just ups the ante. And with the 500 kilo, because you've got to bear in mind when I pulled that 500 kilo like the world record at the time was 463 kilos right so and I announced it to the world and I had exactly the same response it was like every single person when I announced it to a crowd it leads a a year before 2015, the crowd fucking

laughed at me. The promoters laughed at me. Like it was just like a laughing stock and then online it's like Eddie Hall's fucking deluded. We're never going to see this in a lifetime. It is impossible. That was 99.9% of the sort of comments and negativity towards the lift, everyone just laughed at me, strongmen, everybody. And pulling that 500 kilo against all that negativity, you got to remember I broke the record by 37 kilos in one day. It went over a kilo a year for like the last 20 years and I broke it by 37 fucking kilos in one day. So it's shot a lot of people up. And then we fast forward to like 2017 where I'm prepping for Will Strongest Man, I win the Will Strongest Man and I've got the same promoters that are like, why do you come back

and pull 501? And I'm like, why? Do you think anyone would give a shit now? I've made my money from that 500 kilo, made the stamp, made the craze. Like if I came back and pulled 501, it'd be like, oh, well done, mate. Fucking great, 502, fantastic. Yeah, 503, all right, we're getting fucking bored now. So again, it was the risk reward. Like the 500 kilo, I made so much fucking money from that one day. It was obscene. And that was never going to happen again because the craze was gone.

If I pulled 501, I would have made less than a 10th of the money I pulled for pulling 500. So the risk reward was just gone. So I guess that's why I never went for more because there was no reward for pulling more. But I remember at World's Strongest Man 2017, this is in my opinion why I believe I could have pulled a lot more, was the second to last event in the final. It was a max deadlift and it was 572.5 kilos. And this is after like 10 events already. Been competing two weeks out in Africa, bling heat shit sleeps shit food and I stood up with it

like you'd stand up out of a chair like so fucking fast and a Wonderball strongest man and they interviewed me after like Ed that deadlift like I honestly think that was more impressive than the 500 kilo because it was on a stiff thick axle bar as well there There was no budging it. And they said on the spot, what do you think you could have pulled? And I'm like, if you'd have put 520 on that bar, I'd have fucking pulled it.

I just felt so fucking strong, unreal strong. So there's no doubt in my mind I could have pulled more, but what the fuck would I have got out of that if I did? It's like virtually fucking nothing. All right, Mark, you're getting leaner and leaner, but you always enjoy the food you're eating. So how you doing it? I got a secret, man.

It's called good life protein. Okay, tell me about that. I've been doing some good life protein. We've been talking on the show for a really long time of certified Piedmontese beef, and you can get that under the umbrella of good life proteins, which also has chicken breast, chicken thighs, sausage, shrimp, scallops, all kinds of different fish, salmon, tilapia.

The website has nearly any kind of meat that you can think of. Lamb is another one that comes to mind. And so I've been utilizing and kind of using some different strategy kind of depending on the way that I'm eating. So if I'm doing a keto diet, I'll eat more fat and that's where I might get the sausage and I might get their 80-20 grass-fed, grass-finished ground beef. I might get bacon. And there's other days where I kind of do a little bit

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It's satiating, it helps you feel full. I look forward to every meal, and I can surf and turf. You know? I could cook up some chicken thighs or something like that, and have some shrimp with it, or I could have some steak. I would say the steak, it keeps going back and forth for me on my favorites, so it's hard for me to lock one down, but I really love the bavette steaks.

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if you subscribe and save to any meats that are a recurring purchase. This is the best meat in the world. What are some of your thoughts on, you know, some of the guys going after it now? You know, I know there's like, I believe the bar that you used was like an elephant bar. I don't know a ton about all the different bars that they're bringing into the picture, but it does seem like the bars are making it easier.

Do you care a ton about like, hey, let's try to keep it within some sort of reasonable range of what I did? I think that's a problem. I do think that's a problem. I do think that's a problem. I mean, so when the rogue, the Arnold's, introduced the Elephant Bar, they called it the Long Bar Deadlift. And it was actually me that sent a very long email sort of saying, look guys,

like you're sort of cusping on the fence here with lift. Cause it is, there's so many ways of looking at it. Some people say it's harder. I believe for me it was harder because I wasn't able to train on that bar. But then you look at people like Brian, who did have that exactly had the same bar, the same home attire as everything or the, sorry, the same plates and everything. And you're thinking like, he would say to me, I find it easier because he, you know, it was just like that. It left the floor that little bit later. He was able to sort of stabilize it and pull it in. And the bar bends a ton. Yeah. So it was an easier lift for Brian, but it was a harder lift for me. And I think that's because I didn't train on the bar, but it, that's, that's, that's the point.

It's like you're creating a different apparatus that may well be harder, may well be easier, but it's the point that it should be done on the same bar. And I think I deadlifted on the Oakey Ohio deadlift bar, I think. So if anyone comes and uses a different bar, does that then, you know, and that's how it should be. It should, I think it should all be done on the same apparatus, you know, calibrated plates, the same bar, because if you use it, even if you use a different bar, what are these bars they're using these days that people are getting crazy PBs on it, you know, and that just changes the, changes the aspect of the lift. So I think it does need to have some sort of

Oversight on it and like this part the calibrated plates, you know needs to be used How did you build that kind of strength because I don't know if people I haven't really heard you talk that much about it, but I would just say flat. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody more explosive Hmm with some of the deadlift movements that you would do. And they were unique. They weren't always like just a regular like speed pull. Sometimes it looked like, from what I can recall, there's some video of you maybe just pulling and not even standing up all the way.

You know, so you had unusual techniques that you probably maybe developed through, you know, yourself and a coach or yourself and someone else or even just intuition, but yeah, how'd you come up with some of this and how did you build up a deadlift that beat the all-time world record by 37 kilos? So I got stuck at 420 kilos for fucking like, I'm going to say like four years, I couldn't get past 420 kilos. So I had to step back and be like, why can I not progress on the

deadlift? And what I was doing was, was every single week I was going into the gym and trying to pull as heavy as I could. So every single week I was pulling 420, next week 420, next week 420, every single week trying 430 and failing. And then I did a lot of research and this is when I got really heavy into my recovery. It was around the 2014-15 mark and it was all about recovery. So you cannot go in max deadlift every week because your body cannot recover from a maximum effort pull within seven days. It takes 10 days. So I had to then come up with a new program where I do a week heavy and a week of speed pulls. And the speed pulls, so the speed pulls was all about building

power from the floor. It wasn't about from the knees upwards. It was just from the floor to your knees. That's what a speed pull is. That's that's that that that 0.1 of a second of explosion. So that's all I'd pull. I'd pull to my knees and then let go. And I never forget like before, like five weeks before doing the 500 kilo, there were people in my comments section like, why aren't you doing full reps? You're a fucking idiot. Like, you're not going to pull this 500 kilo. And I was like, okay, yeah.

You know, literally people telling me how to deadlift. So you see that I'm just pulling to just above my knees. Do you know? And a little laxity maybe to the mid and upper back that you don't normally pull with. Is that right? What's that normal everything? Yeah, that's pretty normal. That's pretty normal But do you know how much effort it takes to get from your knees to lockout? Why it's fucking it's probably more effort than what it takes to get to your knees that from knees to lockout is the hardest

bit the left in my opinion, so That's part of that is it look like you totally like fucking fell down afterwards. Yeah, yeah. So I would sort of train, that was my method. I would train from the floor one week and then do the harder bits the next week. So I'd go like do the all the way up the next week. And that's how I built that strength up.

Like it did it in like lower half, upper half of the deadlift, so. Do any overloads or there's no reason to when you've got that amount of weight? Did you do anything over 500 kilos? Never. So actually I never went above 554,000 pounds in training. That's the heaviest I've ever pulled in training, 554.

And the reason for that is, so I sort of announced in the middle of 2015 I was going to pull a 500 and then sort of six months into the training, every time I went above a thousand pounds I just fucking failed. I just let my head fall off and I'd sort of get it above my knees and just like couldn't finish the lift off. So I had to go and seek help from like professors and scientists and hypnotherapists and everything. And it was a scientist or a, you know, what do they call them? A physics expert that sort of explained to me that a day to day person that takes the

kids to school, does the sharpening, goes to work, has access to probably 50% of the muscle fibers. Someone who trains 20 hours a week has access to probably 70% of the muscle fibers because that body mind connection is so much better. But then you hear stories of mothers that have been in car accidents that lift cars off of the kids. And where the fuck do they get that strength from? And it's that body mind connection, they're getting access to 100% of the muscle fibers. And the only way they're doing that is this huge rush of adrenaline. That's the only way to access 100% of your muscle fibers is adrenaline. That's the only way.

So that's what I had to create. I had to create a scenario with a hypnotherapist where I'm walking into the arena and this scenario is building in my head. Very horrible fucking distraught thoughts. I don't want to talk about the thoughts, but by the time I get to the bar, like my mind's somewhere else and that bar isn't a bar, it's something someone else, you know? And I'm lifting that something off of my kids. And that's the place I had to go to is like trick myself to just to fucking have that huge dump of adrenaline.

You think Mitchell Hooper can break it? I think Hooper can break it. I think he's got all the tools and he's definitely on track to. I think everything, I'll say this, like you've got to, everything's got to be perfect. And not only physically, I think mentally as well. Like everything's got to be fucking perfect. And not only physically, I think mentally as well. Like everything's got to be fucking perfect. And if you've got something that's bugging you, like you, I call it the inner peace,

right? So you get in bed at night and you've got something that's bugging you and you're just fucking getting bed and you're just like fucking bastards. Just something's just on, on your mind. It's really fucking you over and you can't sleep. And it might, I don't mean much, it might only take half an hour or an hour away from your sleep. But if that inner peace gets fucked, your performance gone.

And that's what I'll say to all the other athletes is like, everything's got to be perfect, probably more mentally than physically. Like if your inner peace a piece of fucked, you aren't performing 200%. You know, this past weekend, having the world's strongest man here, the athletes that won aren't as big as the athletes who've been winning in the past.

And you know, we were talking to the gym and you were mentioning that the sport is different. Now, do you think it's different for the better or do you think it's kind of taking away from the strength of strongman? I think a little bit of both. I think it's better for the athletes because they don't have to be as big and robust

and immobile because they can, it's more of a, there's so much more mobility and movement in strongman now but yeah it's a bit of a I think I think it's better for the athletes but I think it's worse for the sport so it's sort of like some middle ground you know I think strongman in my opinion should be who can move the most weight from A to B that's how that's what strongman should be not picking up a sack and seeing how fucking far you could throw it or how high you could throw it or you know who can pull a bus the fastest and maybe you've got different footwear or maybe you get that better start you know I think like

moving away from A to B is how strongman should be tested that's my opinion. You know who's got the most powerful squat? Who's got the who's got the most powerful squat? Who's got the best deadlift? Who's got the best bench press? Who's got the best shoulder press? Who can lift that movement, that object up and move it 10 meters there, you know, the quickest with the most weight? I think that's strong man. But again, if you've got to find that middle ground, it's a play of finding who's the strongest, making it entertaining and keeping the athletes safe. So you've got three aspects there and that's where Will Strongest Man I think gets that really good balance of like, it's got

to be entertaining. If you just do five events of moving weight from A to B, no one will fucking watch that. It's powerlifting. You know? So nobody watches powerlifting. Nobody watches powerlifting. Sorry. But that was very backhanded. But that's my point. You know, if you just did powerlifting, Will Strongest Man, no one would fucking watch it. So yeah, you've got to find that balance. And I think Will Strongest Man's got it pretty good. The way that it used to look, you know,

in the like eighties and stuff like that, when they play the old videos of the World's Strongest Man, it kind of looked like these were guys that lifted heavy, you know, and they obviously, you know, practice some of the events, but it didn't look like it looks today. Like today they're very clearly like specialists. And maybe it was just a perception

of the way it was back then. But I remember like there would be sometimes there would be like a pro wrestler doing it or former NFL lineman and he was just there and like he was just lifting amongst the other guys. Yeah, like some of these videos are amazing with these legendary strongman athletes. But there's like, I guess you can't really ever bring that back

unless you were to do it with amateur type people or something like that, but it just seemed like there's something cool about them not being specialists. It reminds me of the UFC. Early UFC, some motherfucker came to the ring with a boxing glove on, because he didn't know what he was in for. He had one boxing glove on.

They're like, I think this is going to be a huge disadvantage because you can't grab anybody with a boxing glove. And people were trying different footwear. There were some people wearing wrestling gear and shit like that in the ring. And I think back then it kind of seemed like, almost like this was thrown together with the type of athletes.

Obviously there's bona fide strongman athletes in the mix too, but there's just some other athletes that are just big and strong that I guess they thought they could hang on some of these things. So it was, I think it was like really exciting to try to see who would win out of this pack of people that didn't seem like they were maybe as professional as they are today. I don't know if that makes any sense to you. It does. I mean, if you remember Louis Ferrigno Right. Was in the world's strongest mind.

And he was a body builder. Yeah. You know, I would say he was strong, but he was a bodybuilder and he was competing against the strongest man in the world. And Franco Colombo, I think, did it. And he's like 200 pounds. Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think they were just, yeah, I think you were right. They were just throwing men in a contest and hoping for the best. But in a way that had to happen because that stuff like this has to happen to then see the professionalism of the sport come, you know, this is probably the unprofessional period. No real training like the event like this. Like throwing a big old tire. Yeah. Random goes into the crowd and kills somebody. Exactly. And, um, you know, if you put that into day's struggle, it'd

be like, Oh, come on. That's not, that's not testing strength. You know? So Mark, you have been loving wearing these Paloovas for a long time. Why is it that you like these shoes that look like this? I'm trying to get my feet to be jacked. You know, I think it's funny how sometimes people will, when I wear these shoes, they're like, oh, those are different. And I'm like, well, maybe you should blame God because this is the human foot.

This is the way that it looks. But Paluvas are awesome because it's gonna allow you to train your feet and train your toes and allow for that toe spread because you got the five finger toe thing going on. It's like a, like put on a glove for your feet. It feels amazing. It's like walking around with put on a glove for your feet. Feels amazing. It's like walking around with toe spacers.

You know, we've been working on our feet for a long time now. You always hear the benefit of people talking about like these tribes who have gone without shoes forever, and they have this toe space and have these amazing feet. And these shoes will allow you to just passively get that back by walking around. You don't realize what a disadvantage you're at when your foot is all clumped together

from the football cleats or soccer cleats or whatever else you were wearing when you were young. And so it's nice to be able to splay your toes. In addition to that though, one thing I love about Paloova is the fact that it's not a regular barefoot shoe. I do love barefoot shoes as well, but it also has appropriate padding.

And when you're stepping on some crazy pebbles and rocks and different things, like when I'm out on a run, uh, some terrain is a little different than others. I don't have to be worried that I'm going to get some sort of stabbing crazy thing happening to my foot because it has an appropriate amount of cushion underneath the foot. And guys, Paluva has a lot of different styles on their website. I think one of the newest styles they just came out with,

which is a little bit more of a rigorous do is the strand ATR it's not these these are the strands But the ATRs have a little bit more if you want to go hiking with them You totally can those are amazing if you go out You know throw those on and go sprint on a field and your feet feel so strong Grabbing the grass and being able to actually grab the ground with your foot feels amazing I'm more of a chill guy with my Puluva so I like the Zen slip-ons, but that's the thing. With Paloova, there's a lot of different options.

So if you head to Paloova.com and use code powerproject, you'll be able to save 15% off your entire purchase. And they also have toe socks. Their five feet of your toe socks are no show, so check those out too. You know the interesting thing though about the weight you're at right now and the physical capacity you at right now and the

physical capacity you have right now in terms of your ability to swim, your cardiovascular capacity of running. Do you think you'd actually do really well in today's Strongman because of that? Like we were talking to Mitch and he was talking about being heavier and having good capacity and it's like, well that's where you're at right now, but you're not doing Strongman. That's where you're at right now, but you're not doing strong man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so I think for me I think Why I was just that stupidly strong that rep work was so easy Like if you like the guys now are doing 350 kilo for reps in the in the finals, right? And then I think most the guys hit eight reps. I think Trey Mitchell hit ten. Okay, but

My my max was that high that 350 is like what? 60, 70% of my max. I'm going to be hitting like 10, 12 reps easy without even doing any cardio. And that was my mindset. And back in the days, like any rep work, just you'd get yourself that strong that it doesn't matter. It's like 50% of your max. Today's world, I don't know. I mean, I'm still strong, like overhead stuff, like my shoulders. I've, I've trained with Iron Bibby who's got the log press world record and I kept up with him pound per pound, lighting shoulders and dumbbells and stuff like that. Like it was quite shocking for myself. It's a tough one. Would I still be as good having lost 80 pounds? I honestly don't know, but I just know to be that,

that brute strength, like the 500 kilo and lifting 220 kilos strict above your head, like you have to be 450 pounds. It's a fact. And that's how it was back then. It was, you had to be that size because the weights were that fucking ridiculous. So it has changed. I mean, look, if I were to walk into Will Strongest Man with a few months training, I would make top 30. I'm fairly sure. To make top 10, I'd probably need a good, I need a good year. I need a good year to get the tendons back up to shape and ligaments and just build back up.

Top three would be two years away. You've got to be. Yeah. So that's where I'm at right now. That's been sincere. I'm still strong. I could still walk in and do fairly decent damage even at this point, even being a fighter. With Mitchell Hooper, he was telling us

that he went on some sort of bike and he tested on some sort of bike and him and a few other strongmen just like blew the record out of the water. And then you're telling us about like that punch. And I've heard this a bunch of times with strongman athletes. And I think Brian Shaw had like his body fat levels tested

and then there was just like the most amount of muscle like anyone's ever seen or something crazy like that. What is it about strong men that like turns you guys into such mutants or are the strong men guys mutants first and then they gravitate towards strong men? I think it's just, I mean, look, I mean lifting heavy weights and eating huge amounts of food for years and years and years, it does these amazing

things to the body. And I've done all this testing what Mitch is doing here. And, like, the stuff that our bodies are capable of compared to normal people, like I did, where they put you in a, like, a leg extension and they measured the, like, the horsepower of your legs. I had, like, two horsepower in one leg. It's fucking like the same torque as like a one liter engine. And there was stuff like they tested my heart and they put all these measuring valves and everything on me and a normal heart beats four to seven liters of blood per minute.

Mine was beating 17 liters of blood per minute. My heart, it was like a tiny, it was a little bit enlarged, but it wasn't like a massively different, it wasn't different since your heart. And this professor was like, I've never seen a heart so efficient. Like it's the most efficient heart I've ever seen in my like 50 years of you know professional career. It was like just obscene. And it's stuff like that. It's like that transfers over to so many different things like fighting, you know, I'm able to move this huge amount of mass and do seven minute miles and run a mile and swim a mile in 22

minutes. It's just it's unheard of, but you can train your body to these absolute extremities. And this kind of shit happens. You just, it's unbelievable. Like, unless you had it on camera, you're like, fuck off, that's not true. How long are like most strongman events? 60 seconds.

Yeah, so I mean, max 75. So there's gotta be some magic in there because that would be like the equivalent of running like a 400 meter. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm a big believer in like people say strong women aren't fit and I'm like, okay, you come and pull that bus as hard as you can. How about you just try to bench press for 60. Yeah, yeah. Honestly, like you have had this conversation loads of times, like just give maximum effort for 60 seconds. Not a lot of people can. It's fucking hard. Like having

that same power output from the first rep to the last rep at 60 seconds is fucking tough, but strong men manage it. It's an anaerobic anaerobic to some capacity. And then plus you guys are, I mean, you guys are like also explosive too, which is even crazier like to lift, sometimes you guys will lift the stones and the stones will either go up in weight or down in weight and then the, how high you're putting the stone changes

as well. Yeah, so this is, I mean, this is me at like 175 kilo, like 385 pounds here. And we did like a Marine fitness test. I'm sure I ran a mile and a half in 11 and a half minutes. Nice. Dude. It's flying. And I like you'll see in a bit,

like I literally turned blue, but I did it. But you can do it. Yeah, but I can do it. You got a bunch of training in with him too, right? Yeah. Ross Edgeley, right? Yeah, he's obscene. Ross Edgeley's just one of these guys.

He's swimming around Iceland at the minute. Everything he does is nuts. I mean, like parts of his tongue fell off and shit like that. Yeah. When he's doing some of these swims, I guess because like the salt water and you're just like, oh my God.

Yeah, Iceland, that's gotta be brutal. 100%. Let me ask you this. You have that swimming background and it's interesting. We had Alan Belcher on the show and he was talking about the power of swimming for cardiovascular endurance. And then there's another fighter

that Alan talked about off air, but he was like, you can't mention this guy because the swimming is his secret weapon for fighting and no one wants to, he doesn't want anyone to know. So what do you think that that background has been able to give you in terms of capacity? And do you think it's something that people should just learn how to do? 100%. I think swimming is one of the best attributes on planet Earth. I think, you know, being able to swim for the first is just a great skill, but I believe that

even club level swimming is so good for almost all aspects of fitness. And it's one of the only sports where it trains the aortic valve in the heart because you hold your breath whilst you exercise. So it creates this huge amount of stress in the pressure in the heart, the veins, the lungs. So it really conditions the valves in your heart way more than any other sport. So if you swim early on, you are making your heart bulletproof. Lyle Dyer When do you hold your breath when you're swimming? Because I thought like you're exhaling in the water and then having an inhale. So I would, I would, I would breathe every three strokes. It'd be like one, two,

and then straight away you're sort of breathing out, but you are, there's a hold somewhere. There's like, well, you're talking about two second, two second hold. And when you're doing over like breaststroke and you're pushing off, off the, off the side, you're under water for 10 seconds. There's a lot of holding your breath. Sometimes you're finishing the race and stuff too. You gotta make a decision whether to breathe or not. That last 20 meters, sometimes you weren't even breathing. I used to do 50 meters front crawl and my best times were the ones where I didn't even breathe.

So I'd do like 50 meters and it would take me like 23 seconds and I wouldn't breathe once. It's kind of funny how, I think you mentioned this the other day, yesterday we had this guy Irwin Lacour who comes in and his thing is he's really, he can hold his breath for like almost eight minutes. And he was talking about the benefits that can have for your fitness if you're someone who does a sport.

But it's like, he just talked about that yesterday. No one has talked about breath holding like that before. And now you're in here talking about like, oh shit, you know, this breath holding stuff. And then also with the swimming, I think it transfers over to fighting way more than any other sport because you hold your breath. You think about when you're fighting and you're throwing those punches, you are subconsciously, you're holding your breath and it's same as swimming.

You're taking that breath and you're exhaling on the exercise. And those points where you're in the wrestling, you know, you're getting those headlocks sometimes, you've got to take a big breath and you've got to fucking worm your way out of situations. So I think swimming has been like one of the most transferable pieces of cardio I've done for fighting. If I want to get fit, I won't run,

I won't do ski urge or rower, I'll swim. It gets me fit so fucking fast. It doesn't mess up your joints either. And it does, it's so low impact. It's like an active recovery. And how I train for swimming is like this last fight was four minute rounds. I remember it didn't get close to four minute rounds in the end, but I would train. All I'd do is jump in the pool and I'd do three sets of four minutes as fast as I could. At the end of that four minutes, my heart rate's like 160, 170 beats per minute.

You have that minute rest, it's just going down to the 120s, 110s, and then you set off again. And that, how can you beat that in terms of fighting? And it's exactly the same, you're holding your breath, you're straining, it's almost identical to a fight in terms of cardiovascular. It's interesting, you know, because you're doing something for, you were mentioning, you know, in Strongman,

that things take about a minute, you know? But it's almost like some of your conditioning for swimming from the time you were young, doing maybe potentially things that might last a minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, it probably made some of the events in Strongman feel kind of easy to you. Yeah, and I say I've done a lot of testing

and I think the lung capacity was a big deal for me. I think, because I remember I did testing when I was 13 and my lung capacity was nine liters. And I don't know if at the time, like an average for a 13 year old was like three liters. You know, so I had a nine liter lung capacity. And this professor was like, this is this is fucking obscene. Like, you know, I see guys in the 30s that don't have the lung capacity capacity to this that run and whatever else. And again, it's swimming. It's that it's that

diving it's holding your breath. It just stretches everything, gives you this huge lung capacity, which you never lose, your lungs never shrink. And I think that carried over into my Strongman super well. My ability to push longer and harder than anybody else was so evident, like the Conan's wheel going for distance, the repetitions, I was always able to get more reps than everybody else. Not solely through strength, but just through being so fit. And then the recovery, you know, you're doing an event and I'd go, I'd go have a little walk around and I'd be sat down ready for the next event

and everyone else would be breathing out their arse, you know, and I'd be ready to go. It's just, I believe swimming, along with the heart strengthening and the lung capacity gave me such good attributes to go into Strongman. You can also use swimming as a form of recovery too, right? I mean, on days that maybe where you're feeling beat up

from MMA and from your camp and from some of your training, you can have a day that's a little bit more low key. Probably still get a great workout in, get your heart rate up a lot, but not have your joints and body take the same beating. Yeah, I know exactly. There'd be days where perhaps I'd pull a calf or a bicep or something,

and you wouldn't go fight training, you'd go swimming instead. And it would just help ease it off, and you'd, you know, yeah, you're still getting your training in, still getting your cardiovascular work in, but as you say, no impact, and your active recovery,

shifting that lactic acid out. Do you think fighters should use some strongman stuff? Do you think it's like advantageous? I mean, I know that you're probably doing something different because you already have that background, that base, but sandbags, you know, things like that. Yes, I think because especially for MMA, I think it's such a mauling sport

that mauling with sandbags and mauling with yokes. I think it's such a good attribute. I've never heard a fighter say, I wish I was weaker for that fight. Have you? Strength is such a good attribute, especially in MMA. The stronger you are, the harder you can grip, the arm bars you can get in, the getting out situations in general. I've been in, I've sparred with some black belts in jujitsu, big guys, like 120, 130 kilo and in the whole year, I've not been submitted once. I'm not going to say I'm better than them. I'm just saying that my strength with a little bit of knowledge, I'm able to resist these armbars, resist these, you know, these chokes and just get out of things just through being

strong. So I think it's got a massive amount of benefit. Arm barring you would be a nightmare. Like, yeah, that's, I can understand that. Yeah. How is that your jujitsu? Is that something you're working on quite a bit? Yeah. So in this whole year prep,

I've done basically two days groundwork, so two days jujitsu and then two days combining the two. And the groundwork's been fun, you know, because it's a whole new thing learning it. It's great fun, it keeps you fit, like that straining element is, keeps you super, it's surprising how much cardio you need for wrestling. But yeah, I think I've got myself to a good enough level, you know, probably not anywhere near a brown or black belt, nowhere near, but enough to hang with a brown or black belt because of my strengths.

You know, the cool thing though about you is that people that are pure grapplers, a lot of them kind of stray away from being on the feet because they get too tired being on the feet because they get too tired being on the feet. So they'll, they, they, they have better capacity when they're grappling on the ground, right? But you just need to fill that hole of being able to have a capacity on the ground and those movements being kind of instinctual and then it's going to be kind of complete. Yes, no, exactly that. It's like a, it's like a backup, um, a backup sort of skill. Like you say, you get a little

bit tired on your feet, you get to the ground and you can almost, like if I get on top of someone and I just turn into a blanket, like I can more than to death with so little effort, so little effort just from being so big. So yeah, it's got its perks, that's for sure. Brian Shaw was training for some MMA, I think for a while, then for some reason, I think the fight didn't happen, unfortunately. It would have been great to see him. It looked like he put in a lot of hard work. Have you guys ever rolled together?

No, we haven't. I think we should do. I think- Oh, people would love that. Yeah, I think me and Brian should. Even if it was just, you know, I mean, I guess it can't be friendly, right? It won't be friendly.

With you guys, it's gonna turn into chaos. I did a sumo training session last year, year before the diaper thing and everything. Yeah. That's great. It's like a diaper. I love it. I absolutely loved it. I don't know where you're going. I went up against the, uh, the British open and heavyweight champion first time I'd ever done it. And I wiped the floor with these guys. And I was like this, I fucking loved it. ever done it and I wiped the floor with these guys. And I was like this, I fucking loved it. And yeah, unfortunately, just because everything I'm doing, I couldn't get to the ball. I was pretty much the coach was like, you need to get to Japan and do the world

championships. And I was like, fuck, I'd fucking love to. And just, it's just never been able to always like miss the qualifiers and everything, but something I'd love to do. And I think Brian, I think me and Brian would be great in that. Me and Brian just walking into sumo and doing pretty good would be fun. Strongman just going into all these other sports, messing everything up for everybody. Yeah, pretty much. I think there's a video of Martins,

he was doing some judo, and then it was like a Japanese judo, like ultra heavyweight, they did like a round, right? And Martins just picked it up and just fucking threw him off to the ground. It's funny how strongmen can just like, because of those physical traits, there can be a lack of technique, but you can kind of shove that away. Yeah, that's what I was saying earlier with like, you know, I might not have the skill

of a brown or black belt because of my strength, I can hang with them. And Martins is a great example. He's definitely not brown or black belt, but because he is, so I mean he's got black belt on there, is he a black belt? He's a joke now, he's a white belt. Yeah, but yeah, because of his strengths, look, I mean he can hang with a black belt. It's crazy. And it's nuts, yeah. I mean that black belt on any other person would absolutely destroy them,

but because Martins has got that core strength, that weight, yeah, makes it hard work for him. Well, you guys don't just lift weights, you're lifting like objects. And I think there's a big difference. The guy that was in yesterday, again, was talking about how in our environment, everything's like straight, everything's like square,

but not in nature. You don't really, you basically, it's super rare to run into that. You're not gonna run into like a rock that's like a complete square. And something like picking up a stone or even like a sandbag which can kind of slide and move around in you a little bit.

And you, it's not only like just picking it up. Some people think they're gonna like kind of pick it up with like their biceps and you have to squeeze it. And then it requires a certain amount of mobility to get your, some guys are able to put their forearms kind of near the ground to get their arms underneath the stone and so forth. And it's like you're wrestling with this object,

which is, and by the time you get done with it, if you have a heavy enough stone or sandbag, you're exhausted. Even just from, I mean, tussling with the thing for 20 seconds. Yeah, no, you're completely right. And if you did that with a 50 kilo dumbbell, you know, you wouldn't get much from it,

but you turn that into a 50 kilo sandbag, you're getting so much more. It's here today, it's using all those core muscles. You're completely right. Strongman in itself is so much more transferable to real life situations like fighting and wrestling. For that, yeah, 100%, I agree with that. Power Project Family, how's it going?

Now, over the years, I've learned a lot from guests that have come onto this podcast, and I've taken the time to learn many different movement practices. So, for example, if you've wanted to learn rope flow, which is a practice I think is just beneficial for everyone, I have a free rope flow foundations course at school.com slash The Stronger Human.

Now, The Stronger Human community actually has over 11,000 members, so it's a great community there, but you'll also be able to learn rope flow for free, along with many other things I teach in there like kettlebell flow, kettlebell juggling, all that good stuff. So, head over there.

Along with that, if you're looking for where to get your equipment as far as ropes, maces and clubs, sandbags, all that good stuff, you can head over to the strongerhuman.store. And on that site is where I have all of the different functional fitness equipment that I use to become a stronger human. So check those out.

Let's get back to the episode. What happened recently when you were chasing some people down the street in your neighborhood? Ah, geez. So, I mean, look, it's in the UK, I mean, anywhere I go in the world, but in the UK, it's like, fame has become a bit of a hunting problem for me. It's like, I can't go out in public, I can't go to the supermarket, I can't take my kids to the theme park, I can't go out for meals. It's just constant, you know, it's nonstop. And the problem with

me is, is, you know, I'm not as famous to say like David Beckham or other, you know, celebrities, but they can hide away. They can put a cap on, put glasses on, put a jacket on and they can blend in. I fucking can't. I'm gigantic. So like the second I walk into the room, it's like everyone just, you know, you're so obvious. Right. So it's like, it's kind of so fucking bad and shit like this, like people turn, and this is a regular occurrence by the way, like people- It's a pretty good sprint by the way, especially in some slides. I was proud of that. So this is like a regular occurrence of people like turning up to the house where my kids live.

And just like watching outside, looking in the gates, like taking pictures, honking the horns, ringing the gate, is Eddie in? Can we have a picture? It's a regular thing. It's not like this isn't like a one-off. And these guys were here for, I mean, now I've gone through all the CCTV, they were there for nearly 20 minutes honking their horns, calling my dog, trying to get my dog to come down to them. My Alex there went down to them three times asking them to leave.

They were very rude to her. And then the third time we're just like, no, we're staying. And that was like after like 15 minutes of being there. So I was in the garden with my son, just having a bonfire and a cigar, just proper chill. I had no idea this was going on. I heard the honking, but it's such a regular thing. I thought nothing of it.

So she came up and told me and I looked on the CTV quickly. So I see how long they were there. I was just like, fuck this. They were like the third people that day to come and knock on my house. And I was just like, fuck this. I've just, they were like the third people that day to come and knock on my house. And I was just like, fuck this. I need to, I need to put a fucking stance on this. You know, I need to let people know that it's not okay to come to this house and disturb my, like they went my fucking, Alex was putting my kids to bed and then the horns are fucking going and they're coming to the window like, who's that mommy? You

know, getting fucking scared and shit. And it's like, you little fuckers, disturbing my inner peace. You know, and that you disturbed my inner peace, you're going to get the worst side of me. So I just went down, went down a side gate and I just, I just hadn't, I just had enough. I was just like, I don't want to fucking talk to these guys. I don't want to reason with them. Just fuck off. Just get the fuck away from me.

Get the fuck away from my house. Just fucking go. I don't fucking care what you've got to say. And the first two sort of like just got it and I'm like, oh sorry, or whatever. But the third guy just like stood his ground and was like, well, we just want a picture. I want my kids want a picture. What about my kids? And I'm like, what about my fucking kids? Like you sat here beeping your fucking horn for 20 minutes. What about my kids? And I'm like, what about my fucking kids? Like you sat here beeping your fucking horn for 20 minutes. What about my fucking kids? Just fuck off. And he looked me dead in the eyes. As he was, as he was just put his car into gear and was just driving off, he looked me dead in the eyes. He's like, I'll fucking knock you out.

And I just, I just saw red. I was like, fuck this. Like you've, you've fucking like pissed me off for 20 minutes and now you're going to say you're going to knock me out. So I just saw red and that's the interaction you saw there of me just losing my shit. It's a good job they fucking drove off. I swear to God. If I'd have got hold of those fuckers, I'd probably be in prison right now. And just flip their car right over. This is the thing, man. It's like, I cannot, I couldn't put a fucking step wrong without some fucking twat film in it, you know? And that's the kind of shit. If that was Joe Bloggs,

nothing had happened, you know? It'd be like, oh, a guy chased a guy down the street with his people in the hall. But because it's Eddie Hall, and you got to think that went viral. That clip went viral instantly. Like 10 o'clock that night, the sun, like I like National Scumbag paper, posted it on their Facebook and whatever and Instagram. And I was getting like 5,000 comments instantly, like 5 million views, 5,000 comments, like Eddie Hall's a fucking twat, scumbag, cancel him, let's go up and do him, let's go up and smash his house up and I'm like what the fuck. I didn't sleep at all that night. I was just like what the fuck, what do I do? And then my brother rung

me in the morning, he's like Ed, you are literally getting cancelled. Like you are, like the businesses are going to fold, like you are going to get fucking cancelled mate. It's like the sales have already dipped this morning, like you're going to get fucking canceled. So I had to like muster up this response and put it out as quick as I could, got it out that night and just luckily had the CCTV just to prove what fucking pests these guys were. And it's actually come out, not my words, that one of these guys is being investigated for child molestation. So I have within every fucking right to act the way I did, even like even more so now. You got those dirty bastards hanging around my fucking house. So yeah.

That's some scary shit. Have you thought about like security or something? I mean, my security is top notch.ch you know I've got 24-7 CCTV you know someone's sat there on the cameras actively looking at what's going on around my property and that's probably the most I'm willing to do you know because I've got big high fences it's quite secure good alarm systems bulletproof glass attack dogs I've got the lot like it's a fucking fortress but shit like that I mean mean, in hindsight, should I have just phoned the police? But would they have come within an hour, two hours? Would they fuck?

You know? So, yeah, it's come across my mind. Maybe I get some kind of like water cannons set up outside the gate or something. But I have had living security in the guest house before, because it has got that bad in the past. But then I've now upped all my security. There's like no need for them. But yeah, I think there's like patrol cars now going around my house every hour at night. So that, you know, and I've had to pay for that, but it keeps me peace of mind and keeps

the kids safe and everything. So, but it's a cost I shouldn't have to fucking pay, you know? Right, right. Yeah, this, I saw, you know, when I saw that, I was like, what the hell's going on? And I saw your video like immediately afterwards, which I think was great because then you, there's some sort of context to it. Yes. You know, that way people don't think you're just a mad man chasing people down the street.

That was, that was the consensus of that video. Yeah. Eddie Hall's a fucking nutcase. Didn't do me any favors. With your conditioning being the way that it is, just for the fuck of it, or maybe even just a YouTube video, would you consider doing like a high rocks type thing? Fuck no, fucking Jesus.

I mean, what's high rocks? Eight, one K runs? I think so. Yeah, fuck that. Too much. Yeah, that's hip destroying. It's a lot. It's a lot of running.

That's fucking hip destroying. Maybe it was swimming, you would think. We're swimming, yeah, I'd smash it. If it was 8-1k swims, that'd be easy, but runs now, that's like, I wouldn't be able to walk for like two weeks. That'd fuck me up. Not worth it. No.

What's it like now that, you know, where you get, you know, you used to have to like, you know, fight to make a name for yourself mmm, and now your name is Providing a lot of great opportunities like you're on tour You're here with the world's strongest man and you really just at least from where I sit you just show up Maybe do some commentating. Yeah, yeah, pretty take some pictures with some people and stuff like that I mean it must feel that must feel pretty awesome. Yeah, I mean, life's good. You know, I'm very lucky, very blessed

to live the life I do. It's amazing, you know, and the opportunities that have come knocking my way, such as the fighting, you know, the presenting world's strongest man, I've done TV shows with the guys in America, the strongest man in history, I've had my own TV show in the UK. It's been a whirlwind, you know, and it still is. Like the opportunities I get almost on a daily

basis it's like, it just never stops. It's pretty insane. How do you know, you know, when to say no to certain things? It's all about the premiums. You know, it's, I've set a premium, like what my day rate is, it's quite high. But it's like the people that turn me like, say nine people turn me down and that 10th person says yes, but that 10th person pays for the nine nos. So that's how I work it. I put my premiums quite high. I value my time quite high.

Because I'm actually busy every day. What about something like acting? Is that something you've tried to pursue at all? Yeah, so I did a little part in Expendables 4, just a little bossing fight. And on the back of that, I did a film called The Awakening that's out this year. Again, just like a slightly bigger role. And there's a film coming up soon called The Lost Book of Creation with Russell Crowe and Mel Gibson and I'm on screen with potentially Russell Crowe for the entire film.

So it's something that I'm quite passionate about and something that I enjoy. Like being on set and having that crack and filming and eating and training around everything. It's quite fun. I enjoy it. So it's something I'm desperate to get into actually. It's something like a passion of mine. So I'm actively working quite hard to do more of that. And is there like, will you maybe take some classes

or try to figure out how to perfect some acting? Cause it's, you know, it comes pretty natural to some people, but it also, it can be really difficult as well. Yeah. I mean, I had to get over some big stepping stones. There was some speech therapy I had to get over. I had real trouble saying three and, you know, the TH, I couldn't say it. It was like the free. I used to say three is free and I could not say it. So I had to get some speech therapy for stuff like that. And then straight after I won World's Strongest Man, I pretty much jumped into acting

lessons and I did. An hour a week for about three years. I have a really high level acting coach and you know when a role comes around, I'll jump back to the acting coach and we'll sort of touch up on things and then make sure I'm sort of prepped and everything going into this role. It's like anything, like with a strongman, with the swimming, with the fighting, you've actually got to work fucking hard. Like you've got to really put some effort in and learn your lines and get the speech therapy and go back and forth with someone just rehearsing those lines over and over and over again and just memorizing them.

It's really tough. You've got to give it 100% like you do anything. Thank you so much. When is your fight and who are you fighting? Do you know? Well, I'm talking with matchmakers at the minute and the number one name that keeps coming up at the minute is Francis Ngannou, which again is fucking insane. But there's a lot of talk, you know, there's talk of me and Marius teaming up, the guy I just beat and doing a 2v4 in Poland.

In Poland? What's with the Poland? Them Eastern Europeans, man, they're all fucking nuts. They just love it. That's where the power slap was invented. It was fucking crazy. There's like the 3v1 scenarios. There's Talkamy fighting Dylan Danis. There's loads of crazy stuff, you know? But it's like with anything, if the price is right, I'll take it.

If the price is shit, I'm not fucking interested. It's got to be worth my while. Thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Thank you, man. It's nice to see you both as well. Strength is never weakness. Weakness is never strength.

Catch you guys later. Bye.