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Best Armwrestler Ever


darthsith19

Who has the best right arm ever (in an open weight cetegory, not lbs for lbs)?  

90 members have voted

  1. 1. ???

    • John Brzenk (The Legend, in his prime - Boomtown anybody?)
      68
    • Alexey Voevoda (The Russian Warrior / The Beast from the East)
      5
    • Richard Lupkes (in his prime of course)
      3
    • Gary Goodridge (in his prime)
      5
    • Cleve Dean (Mr. Armbreaker, 450+ lbs)
      6
    • Someone else (please say who)
      3


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Maybe I am reading the question differently than others. Over a career, win/loss record over just about everybody, it is Brzenk without a doubt. I read the question as being who was the best on their best day, which I believe is still up for grabs.

Mac, read the poll question again. It said "the best EVER" . IMO , it means over the AW career, not one or two tournaments. It did not say "the best on their best day" I still pick John as the best on their best day.

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If you take a look at most armwrestlers, many come and go, give a stellar performance and leave... but Brzenk has been pulling since he was a teen, his first world title came at age 18, and he is now 44 or 45 (not sure) and is STILL owning pretty much everyone. Always fluctuating in weight to make the lower weight classes and pull multiple classes, and being so active each year, I can understand why Bob Brown always says that HEALTH is more important in John's shape, than his weight in itself. I think that John, even when he bulked up to 230 that time, was not 100% healthy, or so I've been told. I think a healthy, 100% healthy John, even at 210# would destroy the competition.

It is funny than both Bob and John himself say that he does not have the hand he had in the 90's. It is funny because people like monkeypaws state that John's hand is the strongest he has felt on a table, and many others attest to this as well. I've asked Bob about this, and he says maybe his arm was at his strongest in 2006 when he got to 230+ pounds, but his hand and wrist have never been like they were when he was in his late 20's or early 30's, in the 1990's. Back then, like I said, he was pulling many classes and, to accomplish this, staying rather light in weight I think. If he would have bulked up back then, and you'd combine his better health and strength of arm AND wrist/hand, I think you'd get an unbeatable armwrestler!!

Goodness, I sound like such a fanboy, I'm thinking of not posting this reply.... bah, screw it! :rock

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his hand and wrist have never been like they were when he was in his late 20's or early 30's, in the 1990's. Back then, like I said, he was pulling many classes and, to accomplish this, staying rather light in weight I think. If he would have bulked up back then, and you'd combine his better health and strength of arm AND wrist/hand, I think you'd get an unbeatable armwrestler!!

I agree, but that's [bIF. Keep in mind that when John was in his early 30's in 95 and 96, and he has stated that at that time Gary Goodridge was #1 in the world. At the time when John's wrist was the healthiest.

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How do you guys think Mac Batchelor and Mo baker would have faired against todays greats.

For me Johns done it all and is still there hes as strong nentally as he is physically hes lasted the course and is still capable of beating anybody at any weight when hes on form.

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How do you guys think Mac Batchelor and Mo baker would have faired against todays greats.

For me Johns done it all and is still there hes as strong nentally as he is physically hes lasted the course and is still capable of beating anybody at any weight when hes on form.

Mac Batchelor done something Brzenk or any other arm wrestler has never done.

He never lost a match. Never! 20+ year career.

If he was in his prime and alive today AND knowing the techniques he would destroy

all comers. His hand, wrist and forearm power was off the charts.

Mighty Joe

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I doubt the competition level in his time was near the level it is today. Also, are there any empirical sources of him never losing or just anecdotal comments?

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http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/2008/...-batchelor.html

If he is so great, though, and could have beaten Gary Goodridge, John Brzenk, and Devon Larratt in their primes, why didn't he go to ROTN and just smash everybody, win some easy cash?

http://www.dennisrogers.net/productview.php?uid=22

"Armwrestling has come a long way since the days of Mac Batchelor. Since that time it has evolved into a professional sport with numerous competitions throughout the world."

The pic at the top is dated for 1948. Put John Brzenk from today (let alone his prime) into 1948 and do you honestly think any "bar armwrestlers" (that's all there was at the time) would stand a ghost of a chance against him?

Edited by Josh H
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Mighty Joe, while I appreciate your oppinions, I have to disagree with your statement.

The very best of all time have lost..........many times.

Brzenk, Bath, Voevoda, Goodridge, Lupkes, Dean and many of the GREATEST armwrestlers EVER.......if they put themselves out there.

I think it is foolish to think that this man was SOOOOO far ahead of the human race.......I tend to believe that he never armwrestled anyone,

S H I T, I could retire right now and have a fan club that attests to the fact that I "NEVER LOST"..... please get out there a bit and you'll see what's up. I have ( like so many others out there ) SMASHED countless "UNDEFEATED" armwrestlers.

IMO, I look up to John B. , he amazes me,, But I am hard pressed to see ANYONE topple VOEVODA in his prime.

Voevoda was the total package and........again....IMO........would have eaten everyone in their prime to date.

John is a PHENOM, but I can't wrap my head arond the fact that Voevoda was on another level from even the very best at that time,

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If he is so great, though, and could have beaten Gary Goodridge, John Brzenk, and Devon Larratt in their primes, why didn't he go to ROTN and just smash everybody, win some easy cash?

Because he's probably either really old or dead.

Edited by thewalrus
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http://www.oldtimestrongman.com/blog/2008/...-batchelor.html

If he is so great, though, and could have beaten Gary Goodridge, John Brzenk, and Devon Larratt in their primes, why didn't he go to ROTN and just smash everybody, win some easy cash?

http://www.dennisrogers.net/productview.php?uid=22

"Armwrestling has come a long way since the days of Mac Batchelor. Since that time it has evolved into a professional sport with numerous competitions throughout the world."

The pic at the top is dated for 1948. Put John Brzenk from today (let alone his prime) into 1948 and do you honestly think any "bar armwrestlers" (that's all there was at the time) would stand a ghost of a chance against him?

Mac Batchelor has been dead many years. That's why he can't compete at ROTN.

Mighty Joe

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I doubt the competition level in his time was near the level it is today. Also, are there any empirical sources of him never losing or just anecdotal comments?

There's both. Remember, we're talking 50-60 years ago.

News couldn't get around like today and people could be

must more trusted for their word than today.

I have some good articles on Batchelor I'll dig up and post for

you guys. Keep in mind the different times we live in compared to his.

Today you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone of a feat or record without

video proof. Many strength people in Mac's day witnessed his strength and

it's well attested he never lost. PERIOD.

Can I prove he never lost? NO! Do I believe the accounts? YES!

His hand, wrist and forearm power would even make Rob's look silly,

and in my opinion Rob is a hand strength phenom and arm wrestler.

Remember also, I have an opinion like the rest of you and I'm not just

an arm wrestler I collect old time strength books, magazines, etc. so I

do know a little bit about some of these strength legends and the old timers.

I also don't mind sharing these accounts. I find them amazing and informative

but you must consider context and time frame when you're talking about

old time strength athletes.

Mighty Joe

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Mighty Joe, while I appreciate your oppinions, I have to disagree with your statement.

The very best of all time have lost..........many times.

Brzenk, Bath, Voevoda, Goodridge, Lupkes, Dean and many of the GREATEST armwrestlers EVER.......if they put themselves out there.

I think it is foolish to think that this man was SOOOOO far ahead of the human race.......I tend to believe that he never armwrestled anyone,

S H I T, I could retire right now and have a fan club that attests to the fact that I "NEVER LOST"..... please get out there a bit and you'll see what's up. I have ( like so many others out there ) SMASHED countless "UNDEFEATED" armwrestlers.

IMO, I look up to John B. , he amazes me,, But I am hard pressed to see ANYONE topple VOEVODA in his prime.

Voevoda was the total package and........again....IMO........would have eaten everyone in their prime to date.

John is a PHENOM, but I can't wrap my head arond the fact that Voevoda was on another level from even the very best at that time,

Rob, I respect your opinion also, but to ask me to get out there a bit and I'll see what's up is

not a fair comment.

I think you know I've been in this sport longer than most people on this board and I know what

you're talking about when you say you've beat countless people that's never lost. I have too.

But, we're not talking about normal people here. Mac Batchelor was a strength GIANT.

To say he probably never even arm wrestled anyone is in my opinion disrespectful

to such a Legend that's long dead and can't speak for himself.

Before you go to knocking his accomplishments, do a little research on him and you'll see

what I'm talking about.

In my opinion, I don't believe Brzenk or Vovoda could touch Mac in his prime and

Mac being taught proper technique. In old school arm wrestling before Steve Stanaway

come up with the top roll, Mac would swat down both Brzenk and Vovoda like flies.

I bet you didn't know that about Steve Stanaway, uh? I've been around a while my

friend. :)

Mighty Joe

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I tend to agree with Joe here. Many of us were unbeaten at first untill we met a better pro or amateur. BUt Mac was a well documented strongman. IMO he's probable super gifted man in strength. Especially in his forearm. It's hard to beat a gifted man that was well trained as well. And it looked like he did train in AW. He didn't know move like top roll, but Rustam Babayev has one move and he beats everyone with it, it works for him very well. He may not enter tournament as today's ones. But he did put his name out there to challenge everyone. In the past strongman always had to deal with people who would challlenge them while they perform their feats. While the level might not be wild spread as it is now. I still think he is very high up there in AW level. If you know Maxic of Maxalding system, you will know that he too was never beaten by anyone he'd faced in AW. He is only 5'4" and 147 lbs. His standing shoulder press was 255 lbs I think, slow press BTW! I don't know any one under 200 lbs can do that today

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I've not investigated the claim of Batchelor never losing an arm wrestling match before - it would be interesting to look at the source of these claims.

To all those who proclaim his superiority - even disregarding the issue of whether he lost or not - my question is "how do you know"?

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i would say Cyplenkov is a "strength giant" aswell. but still Brzenk beat him :o

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i would say Cyplenkov is a "strength giant" aswell. but still Brzenk beat him :o

i think the difference is Cyplenkov was a strongman. this Mac Batchelor fellow seemed to be much more of an arm wrestler, like he concentrated on doing it.

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cyplenkov is both tho :p strongman who concentrates on armwrestling :p

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This is reminding me of that time when some dude was claiming that Magnus Samuelsson would be the best AW ever. The same dude said that "Brzenk's bone density wouldn't be able to handle such preassure"...

Since Magnus is:

-150kg or 330lb.

-A former WSM.

-Official CoC#4 closer.

-Benches like 600?

-Has a DVD called "World's Strongest Arms".

-Used to have the official Rolling Thunder record.

-Among other feats....

I can see why some guys would be inclined to believe that the greatest-armwrestler-ever's "bone density" couldn't take the load, LOL.

Then we were enlightened by some people, and we were told, for example, that Magnus was active in AW in the 90's, and in Sweden he always won the tourneys in the heavyweight class, but in the overalls, he almost always lost to Sharon Remez, who won his class usually (like 90kg or something, how's that for bone density? Lol).

We then also learned that John's younger brother, Bill Brzenk, "beat Magnus EASILY" in 1997 or so. What a shocker. ;)

And even another Swede, Andreas Rundstrom, who was like 180# I think, has also beaten him from what I have heard.

So... a WSM guy who actually was involved in AW, did not do so well at all. So, saying that this Mac Batchelor fella would not have been "touched" by Brzenk or Voevoda is outrageous. Whoever states this, probably also believes that this fellah was overall stronger than Magnus Samuelsson then (hard thing to achieve, honestly), and also had more experience in AW (hard thing to believe, considering Magnus was active in Sweden, and Batchelor "pulled" whoever visited him in a bar???).

I rest my case. :D

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Mighy Joe, I don't know how you can say Voevoda and Brzenk wouldn't be able to touch Mac when Mac only armwrestled guys in bars. There wasn't even tournaments back then! Yes you're right, you have armwrestled for a long time which is why I am even more amazed at what you are saying. You should know that there's much more to armwrestling than pulling in bars. Brzenk, Voevoda, all the pro armwrestlers train for armwrestling. DId Mac even train for it? To be good at armwrestling you've got to armwrestle, back then there were not even armwrestling tables, Mac was probably pulling wrong as none of the techniques were even around back then. As for:

His hand, wrist and forearm power would even make Rob's look silly,

and in my opinion Rob is a hand strength phenom and arm wrestler.

Really? And Magnus Samuelsson's grip strength would probably make John Brzenk's look silly - could he crush Brzenk as well? Put aside the fact that he was actually an armwrestler for several years himself, and one of high caliber. How about Wade Gillingham? He actually does armwrestle, I am sure his grip strength far exceeds Brzenk's. His forearm strength is also probably ahead of Brzenk's in many aspects. I'm sure even he would agree, though, that Brzenk would destroy him. You of all people should know that grip feats and armwrestling aren't directly related.

Edit: Yeah Arturo pretty much said it even better than I did. Great points with Magnus and yeah I have a hard time believeing Mac had better hand strength than Magnus since there were a lot less grip tools back in the 40's (there weren't even grippers were there? and no rolling thunder I presume). Good point with Cyplenov as well. Nathan Jones must have been even bigger than this Mac guy and his hand, wrist, and forearm strength had to be really good, too, being a strongman and all. He crushed Phil Martin at armwrestling like nothing, yet he wasn't able to beat Magnus... and then what happened? Magnus got laid out big time by Bill Brzenk. In the Magnus vs. John Brzenk thread someone even said a 75 kg armwrestler from Sweden beat Magnus.

Edited by Josh H
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How do you guys think Mac Batchelor and Mo baker would have faired against todays greats.

For me Johns done it all and is still there hes as strong nentally as he is physically hes lasted the course and is still capable of beating anybody at any weight when hes on form.

Mac Batchelor done something Brzenk or any other arm wrestler has never done.

He never lost a match. Never! 20+ year career.

If he was in his prime and alive today AND knowing the techniques he would destroy

all comers. His hand, wrist and forearm power was off the charts.

Mighty Joe

Warren Tetting and I talked about this and he said Mac did what was called arm bending, much different than the armwrestling we know today, although people use the terms interchangeably.

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