Under the Spotlight - Grip Profile - TIZIANO BECCHIO* (edited after his banishment from GripBoard for fraudulent certifications)

[Vinnie]

EDIT (early 2024):

Since evidence surfaced indicating that Tiziano Becchio faked videos of lifts by reporting pounds as if they were kilograms and fraudulently performed his IronMind cert on a doctored gripper that did not even come from IronMind, he was banished from the Grip Board and most or all of his gripper certifications have been revoked, and all of his feats detailed below are either already refuted or else under cloud of suspicion.  Tiziano won over a few respected gripsters and obtained a few certifications, so doubters held their tongues and provisionally accepted his claims, which were supported by videos that more or less met the standards of other folks' videos (except that they depicted far more remarkable feats).  That led to Carl asking that Tiziano be profiled here, and of course, I obliged.  Eventually, however, Tiziano got greedy and made mistakes in his false boasts, leading to the discovery of the pounds-for-kilograms fraud and the destruction of his house of cards.  I felt it important to edit this profile to reflect that discovery, but I will leave the original profile here because it is part of grip history that folks sometimes do this kind of gaslighting, and I think it is helpful to see how it looks in its mid-stages.

ORIGINAL PROFILE:

This is an interesting profile for me to offer.  I have an Italian name and have some Italian heritage.  Tiziano Becchio has an even more Italian name, and is a real ltalian, in Italy.  I am a small guy who is good at grippers for his size.  Tiziano is an even smaller guy who is even better at grippers for his size (or for most sizes for that matter lol).  And of course, I was involved in some of the discussions of how much proof people on the Grip Board want to see before they say "yup, that happened."  Tiziano was the very reason for those discussions.

In short, many of us know Tiziano as that small new gripster who claims to close grippers that someone his size has no business closing.  And some of us, including me, have been skeptical and have asked for a bit more proof than a random video here and there.

Let me offer my position on this for you readers, not in an effort to persuade anyone what to believe, but just to explain my own thought processes.  First, Tiziano came out of nowhere it seemed, and suddenly was offering videos of himself apparently closing grippers rated RGC 150, then 160, 170, 180, 190, 200 ... the progression was rapid and it was punctuated by the fact that Tiziano weighs only about 140 pounds.  Compare that to the behemoths like Carl, Chez, Shamey, Anderson -- people who weigh double what Tiziano weighs or more, and who took years to get to similar gripper closes.  These huge feats by a smaller guy made people suspicious.  Could these videos be faked?

Even Tiziano understands why people were suspicious, and I admit that I have been among the skeptical.  The bottom line is that -- in my opinion and I think many will agree -- it is highly improbable that someone as small as that will be that strong.  And just a year or so ago, someone else came out of nowhere and DID fake a bunch of videos of himself purportedly closing COC 4s.  That is why people wanted more than just a video or two.  Call it insurance.  People did not want to be duped, especially if they had been too trusting the last time something like this happened.

What changed?  Besides posting more than a few videos, Tiziano achieved a number of certifications including the IronMind COC 3.5 and the GHP 9, as well as some European certifications with which I am less familiar.  I myself went through the IronMind and GHP certs (for the COC 3 and the GHP 7), and I can attest that those companies were fairly strict about how they handled the process.  Tiziano also has the (at least implicit) support of Carl Myerscough, last month's profilee, who asked for Tiziano's to be the next profile.  All of this leads me to say this:  I accept Tiziano's feats based on the proof he has offered.  You would have to be a physical freak -- a real outlier -- to do what Tiziano does, but you would have to be as much of a psychological freak to go to the trouble he would have to have gone through to fake it.  I mean, the moon landing was an incredible feat, too, but it would have been even harder to fake it.  Going to the moon was amazing but it happened, so I will accept that Tiziano has happened, too.  Let's look forward to what else he will bring to the sport, and see what he says in response to the standard profile questions.

Ecco, il momento che noi aspettiamo, le parole di TIZIANO:

1. What are your stats?

   GripBoard name: Tiziano Becchio
    Age: 28
    Height: 173 cm
    Weight: 63kg
    Dominant hand, and hand size: right, 20cm
    Country/City: Torino, Italia
    Relationship Status: Single
    Children: None
    Occupation: truck driver and farmer

2. Why did you start training grip (and how long is it now)?

I started training in grip out of curiosity, when I saw Giorgio Giannico (grip and bend Italy) doing things never seen before with his hands, I was immediately struck, shortly after I discovered the world behind it and all the very strong and determined athletes.  I want to be part of this world.

3. What are you most proud of accomplishing in grip already, and what is/are your grip goal/goals?

I'm proud of the whole journey and of each of my hard-earned certifications, but of course the most important to me are coc3.5, gmc 95 kg (European mash monster), gmc 83 tns, ghp9, 91.75 kg Logan lift world record.  My main goal is to try to get certified in the coc4.

4. How do you currently structure your overall training/how do you incorporate your grip training?

I am currently doing 4-5 workouts a week:

-upper body and gripper deload.

-Lower body , havy grippers, saxon bar , Rolling.

-rest day.

-upper body ,gripper deload

-bodybuilding stuff.

-lower body ,heavy grippers, axle bar , pinch block.

-I look for a top set of rpe9 work and then run back off, with breaks and work in amrap.

5. What hobbies (other than grip/bending/lifting) do you enjoy?

walks in the high mountains, meditation and exposure to intense cold, nature and try to experience it in the most ancient way possible.

6. Do you have a personal anecdote, topic or thoughts you'd like to include in your profile?

My personal anecdote is "Memento mori":

In ancient Rome, when an emperor returned victorious from a battle, his most faithful said to him, "te memento human, memento mori."  This means, "I remind you that you are human, remember that you will have to die."  This underlines the importance of the present moment at the expense of ephemeral things.  I live like this.  I am mindful of my present moments with the few people I love in my life.

7. Whose Grip profile would you like to see next?

I would like to see, francesco uturbia, (panchogrip) (latin sport grip)

i love his format and he is a very strong guy.

Edited 5 hours ago by Vinnie

[EmilBB]

I was skeptical at the beginning too, now I'm just trying to understand how the hell he's so strong. I think he's just a freak, meant as a compliment of course!

[Scottex92]

No doubt Tiziano has proved himself to be a grip prodigy for his weight and overall. In my mind there is only one question, will his strength go up if his body weight does? will we be seeing a TNS CoC4 soon? 

[Vinnie]

I updated this profile to include an asterisk, since we now know that some of Tiziano's feats definitely were faked, and the rest are certainly in question.