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/