Multi-disciplinary sportsman and former Australia’s ‘Strongest Man’ champion Alex Simon has been disqualified from a boxing fight after displaying behaviour many have referred to as ‘dog-like’.
The disqualification occurred this week during Simon’s professional boxing debut against Tavita Vaoga, which took place in the fighter’s home county.
Simon was actually supposed to debut earlier this year and fight fellow ex-strongman Hafthor Bjornsson but the match was cancelled after he had to pull out with a torn bicep.
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Bouncing back from injury, Simon, who has an extensive background in powerlifting, MMA fighting, cage fighting and kickboxing, seemed to forget he was in a boxing match and pulled out some seriously illegal moves on his opponent.
For this stunt, the fighter was disqualified in the second round.
This was after two warnings at the start of the fight, where the MMA fighter-turned-boxer was repeatedly seen using his head and grappling – techniques typically used in MMA fighting.
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When it really kicked off, however, was when after a series of failed swings, Simon tripped Vaoga and flipped him onto the canvas.
Simon then took out his free hand and punched his opponent on his way down to the ground.
This was too much for the referee to deal with who was heard saying: “That’s it I’m sorry mate. I’m not having that kind of fighting mate.”
He continued, disqualifying the ex-strongest man immediately: “You do not throw your opponent on the floor and trip him.”
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You can see the scenes of Simon being sent off from sports journalist Brendan Bradford here:
Commentator Ben Damon also weighed in on the issue when the chaos was unfolding and could be heard saying: “Bizarre stuff from the multi-disciplined Alex Simon, who thought he was somewhere else.”
Damon continued: “I did have a good chance to chat with Alex Simon during the week. He seems a lovely fellow, but he’s not handling this well at all.
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“What he did was very, very blatant and not part of this sport.”
The ‘Godly Strong’ fighter will definitely be disappointed with the result, having taken to Instagram excited to ‘tick off’ the box of professional wrestling.
Main Event’s Paul Kent remarked on the series of dramatic events: “He was just overwhelmed. I don’t know what the reason was, but he just did not adapt to the sport he was in tonight.
“This is not a street fight. It’s a boxing match and even though sometimes it can get pretty primal inside that ring, there are still rules that have to be followed and Alex Simon just didn’t come tonight to have a boxing match.”
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Alex Simon is yet to publicly address the events.
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@godlystrong