‘I never really loved the sport’

Hafthor Bjornsson has announced that he has taken the decision to retire from boxing following failed talks for an exhibition fight with Tyson Fury.

Thor outclassed Eddie Hall when they clashed in March as the two former World’s Strongest Men met in the ring.

Since that victory though, he’s been unable to secure another big fight.

Bjornsson – who played The Mountain in Game of Thrones – explained on his YouTube channel: “I’ll admit there was a time when there was talks between Tyson Fury and I, well his team and my team.

“There was build-up starting, but that never went through.

“Now I’ve made a difficult decision and the reason why it took me so long to finally make this video was because this is actually a very difficult thing to talk about.

“I’ve made a decision to move on from boxing, to not compete in boxing again, to say goodbye to boxing and just not fight again.

“I had a good run, I did it for two-and-a-half years.

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“It was nice to do so because first when I started I had a lot of people not believing in me.

“I was a beginner in boxing, but I proved a lot of people wrong by working hard.

“I proved people wrong and I made people proud, and that was very satisfying for me.

“But in reality, the passion was never there, it was all grind and I never really loved the sport.

“That’s just the hard truth.

“I have a lot of respect for the sport because I know how much work goes into boxing.

“Just the passion isn’t there.”