‘He fooled the world’: Iranian Hulk deletes DOZENS of ‘photoshopped’ pics after humiliating boxing defeat
Sajad Gharibi popularly known as 'Iranian Hulk' has removed hundreds of manipulated images from his Instagram account, just one month after being humiliated in a boxing match by Kazakh Titan, a boxing champion from Kazakhstan.
In the opening round of his ring debut, Gharibi was defeated by Djumanov Almat Bakhytovich popularly known as Kazakh Titan, in the main event of Wicked N' Bad's white-collar event last month. It was evident from the first bell that Gharibi was barely in the form to throw a punch and did not exhibit the strong body characteristics seen in many of his Instagram photos.
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Gharibi has garnered over a million Instagram followers, it has long been speculated by followers that he exaggerates his images. Nearly two months after making his ring debut, Gharibi's Instagram account now has about 14 posts since he has deleted many of the earlier "altered" images from his page. Seven of the posts are from this year, with the most recent being a video of him weighing in while sporting a baggy t-shirt for his fight with Bakhytovich.
Gharibi's Instagram followers used to routinely remark on his images, claiming they were edited, but he would rarely respond. The battle between Gharibi and Bakhytovich demonstrated the Iranian Hulk's lack of boxing skills, and his trainer Hamzeh Moradian even said Gharibi was "too shy" to box in public sessions. A few days prior to the battle, according to Moradian, Gharibi had expressed a desire to withdraw.
"When we talked, I told him that there is no way Sajad can fight," Moradian told the Daily Mirror. "When they tried to cancel it, they realized that they can't do it because they had to pay a penalty. There are rules anyways and people working in sports know that it's not possible to cancel such events and he had to attend."
When Gharibi was scheduled to compete against Martyn Ford, earlier this year, it became clear that many of his images were misleading because he was overshadowed by the "World's Scariest Man" in their matchup. "He was not what I expected. I think he's just fooled the world with photoshop if I'm honest. Seeing him in real life is not as impressive as seeing him in pictures. So 'disheartening' I think is the word. He was tiny," Ford said.
Ford withdrew from the conflict out of concern for Gharibi's mental health; the Iranian afterward threatened to sue him for this. Ford stated that he had grown concerned after seeing a video of Gharibi sobbing over his relationship with his parents on television.