Four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw once signed up for $20million MMA tournament with Martyn Ford and Eddie Hall

Brian Shaw was weeks away from competing in a massive strongman MMA tournament that would have earned him ‘life changing’ money.

The four-time World’s Strongest Man winner had inked a deal for a four-man super-heavyweight tournament where he would fight Martyn Ford. And with Eddie Hall in a bout on the other side of the bracket, he almost got a chance to compete with his fellow strongman in another sport.

Unfortunately, the tournament never took place, and Shaw has moved on to arm wrestling where he competes in tonight’s East vs West 23 event against Leonidas Arkona. He told Bloody Elbow the entire story in an exclusive chat ahead of the show in Germany.

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Brian Shaw trained with top UFC star for doomed MMA debut

After inking a deal for a tournament in the Middle East, Brian Shaw headed to Colorado to train for the potential two fights. There, he met Curtis Blaydes – who would go on to fight for interim UFC gold and just last weekend took part in one of the greatest heavyweight fights of all time against Josh Hokit.

“It was an MMA fight and Eddie Hall was involved,” he explained. “Martyn Ford was who I was going to go against. The contract came and the training started but it was going to be a ‘one and done’ for me, a one-time deal.

“Then as we got closer everything just kind of fell apart, which was super disappointing because I had poured a lot into the training, it was almost six months where I was 100 per cent dedicated to trying to learn and get better.”

Brian Shaw was devastated by fight cancellation

Ultimately, the tournament didn’t happen and while Hall went on to compete in a 2v1 ‘freak fight’ before moving on to legendary strongman Mariusz Pudzianowksi, Shaw couldn’t find another event that made sense. And with $20 million the agreed prize money, it was devastating for the American.

“It was pretty disheartening to be honest,” he admitted. “I learned a lot of stuff and I got out of my comfort zone with that kind of training, which is the same thing with arm wrestling really…

“I walk in from my experience in strongman where I’m very comfortable and know what I’m doing to now you have to start as a beginner and build up. But it’s fun for me and I love to train, I love to compete and this is a new challenge.

“There were talks afterwards [about another fight] but it never came together and I was disappointed with that for sure. It was crazy life changing money which was my thought.

“I said ‘I’ll go, 100 per cent dedicate myself to this, give it everything to the best of my ability and get after it’ and then I was going to walk away with that kind of payday.

“The opportunity was so appealing and you can take away positives or negatives so I just tried to take a step back as disappointed as I was with it.”