Cuba's 'Ironman' beats himself with a sledge hammer and survives unscathed
16 August 2023 - 10:25
BY ANETT RIOS AND ALEXANDER FROMETA
On a leafy boulevard in downtown Havana, a man is beating himself with a sledgehammer on his wrists, elbows and forearms, drawing a crowd of passersby who gather to film the spectacle with their phones.
What shocks the crowd is not the apparent self-mutilation, but rather that he appears to come away unscathed.
Cuban Ironman Lino Tomasen said he once aspired to be the next Mike Tyson, training to become a professional boxer by subjecting himself to millions of blows with the hammer, and eventually moving from the Caribbean island to fight in Mexico City.
I had 27 matches won by knockout, but I retired because in the last of them I fractured the skull [of my opponent] and he died instantly, the stocky Tomasen recalled in an interview with Reuters in Havana.
More:
https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/world/2023-08-16-cubas-ironman-beats-himself-with-a-sledge-hammer-and-survives-unscathed/