'World’s Scariest Man' Martyn Ford has said he reckons his upcoming opponent the Iranian Hulk uses Photoshop to boost his physique online having now met in the flesh.
Ford will face the Iranian Hulk, whose real name is Sajad Gharibi, and both blokes have thrown themselves heavily into training.
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The eagerly-anticipated fight will see the two absolute units step into the ring at the O2 in London on 30 April.
Speaking about meeting his rival in real life for the first time, Ford said he was surprised by how ‘tiny’ he appeared.
It’s previously been reported that Gharibi weighs around 167kg, compared to Ford's 140kg - but Ford has now rubbished those claims.
He told the Daily Star: "He was not what I expected. I think he's just fooled the world with Photoshop, if I'm honest.
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"Seeing him in real life is not as impressive as seeing him in pictures. So disheartening I think is the word. He was tiny.
"He didn't look anything like he had made out. That was the first time I'd seen him in real-life. He was big, probably bigger than 18stone (114kg), but he wasn't scary big. He just felt like a big kid that didn't really train if I'm being honest. He was supposed to be twice my size."
Ford went on to say he was taking the fight ‘deadly seriously’ and had ‘sacrficied six months’ of his life during training.
Both men have kept their millions of followers updated on their training progress, with Gharibi revealing some rather unusual techniques.
In a series of videos uploaded to Instagram, he showed off his bizarre methods which included punching walls, ripping apart melons and jostling with a group of guys.
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Having seen the videos himself, Ford branded his upcoming competitor ‘embarrassing’.
Ford told Mirror Fighting: "I was embarrassed, genuinely embarrassed.
"People ask me if this is a real fight or if this is some kind of WWE fight. And yes of course it is 100 percent this is going off.
"He is either an absolute genius and is putting this content out to fool me that he is that bad. Or he was conceived too close to a nuclear experiment and his head isn’t right.
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"Because there is something about that video and all of them I can’t grasp what he is doing. The contract's signed and the fights are real and he is putting out the content like that."
Topics: Sport
Claire Reid