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John Brzenk

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John Brzenk
Brzenk closing the coc 1.5 gripper in November 2006
Born (1964-07-15) July 15, 1964 (age 60)
McHenry, Illinois, US
NationalityAmerican
Other names"The Golden Boy" "The Perfect Storm"
OccupationArm wrestler
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)

John Brzenk (born July 15, 1964) is a former professional armwrestler from the United States. He competes in the Ultimate Armwrestling League and is the current UAL Right-Handed Champion (Heavyweight Division).[1] He won the 2015 World Armwrestling League right handed Heavyweight championship.[2] Among experts Brzenk is widely regarded, and was also officially named by the Guinness Book of World Records, as the "Greatest Armwrestler of All Time".[3][4]

Biography

John Brzenk's father, John Brzenk Sr., was an arm wrestler[5] and Brzenk says he gained some of his forearm size through genetics. He arm wrestled across tables in school for about five years. When he was in eighth grade, he broke his arm while armwrestling a friend of his father.[6] When he was 16 years old he participated in his first tournament. He gained the name "Giant Crusher" for his ability to pin opponents twice his size.[7]

Brzenk started his career in 1982, and he won his first world title on ABC's 1983 Wide World of Sports when he was 18 years old.[3] His right forearm is 16 inches in circumference, and his left is 13.5 inches.[8] The heaviest opponent he faced weighed 660 lbs (299 kg), whom he defeated. In his entire career John has only lost a single supermatch once, and only a handful of people have ever beaten him, which only happened later in his career when he was of advanced age.[9] The most noted of them are Devon Larratt and Alexey Voyevoda. Aside from arm wrestling, he works as a mechanic at Delta Air Lines.[10] He says the job is non-physical so his arms get plenty of rest. During his career he has competed for upwards of USD$80 000 at times.[11][12]

Brzenk won four world championships in the heavyweight division through 1994, and gained the nickname of "Superman" for defeating much larger opponents. In 1995, he won the middleweight world championship.[13] He had an uncredited cameo in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top. The feature documentary "Pulling John", directed by Vassiliki Khonsari and Sevan Matossian, produced by Navid Khonsari, chronicles Brzenk's legendary armwrestling career and follows him intimately for 4 years during which he competes all over the world, while considering retiring.[14][15]

Profile

  • Height: 6'1[13]
  • Weight: Varies between 200 and 225 lbs. depending on competition classes.
  • Arm: 18.25 in.
  • Forearm: 16.5 in[16]

Training and strength feats

  • In 2005 he said that he could bench press 315 lbs for 5 reps with a flat bench.
  • A friend of his says that in his prime he was very close to closing the Captains of Crush Grippers #3 gripper.[citation needed] John says that now[when?] he is "nowhere near closing it." He trains with grippers and says that "I have a gripper in my car and when I am driving I try to make between 200 and 240 reps as fast as possible".
  • He advises that the best form of training is arm wrestling.

Achievements

A1 Russian Open:

  • 2015 – R-2nd Place
  • 2014 – R-3rd Place[17]

AAA Stand-Up National Titles:

  • 1984 – R200 lbs
  • 1985 – R185 lbs
  • 1986 – R220 lbs
  • 1990 – R220 lbs

Arnold Classic Titles:

  • 2006 – R199+
  • 2007 – R199+

AWI World Titles:

  • 1986 – Pro Super Heavyweight
  • 1987 – Pro Light Heavyweight
  • 1988 – Pro Light Heavyweight
  • 1995 – Pro Light Heavyweight
  • 2001 – Pro Super Heavyweight

Carling O’Keefe International Titles:

  • 1989 – R 200 lbs, R 231+ lbs

Forsa Tropical International Titles:

  • 1998 – R198 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs

GNC Pro Performance Title:

  • 2002 – R198 lbs

GOLDEN BEAR Titles: SUPERMATCH (Absolut Champion)

  • R1994

Pro tournament

  • R90+ kg: 1990, 1994, 1998
  • R90 kg: 1990

Harley Pull Titles:

  • 2000 – R220 lbs + Harley Winner
  • 2001 – R220 lbs
  • 2002 – R198 lbs, L198 lbs
  • 2009 – R225 lbs, L225 lbs + Harley Winner

Main Event Titles:

  • 1998 – R220 lbs

Mike Gould Classic Titles:

  • 2006 – R220 lbs, L220 lbs
  • 2010 – R220 lbs

Mohegan Sun PAC World Titles:

  • 2005 – R198 lbs, L198 lbs
  • 2006 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 2007 – R198 lbs, L198 lbs

Over the Top World Title:

  • 1986 – Winner of Truckers Division in Heavyweight class

Reno Reunion Titles:

  • 1999 – R200 lbs, R230 lbs, R231+ lbs, L200 lbs
  • 2000 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2001 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs
  • 2002 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2003 – R233+ lbs
  • 2006 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 2006 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs

ROTN Titles:

  • 2007 – R215 lbs, L215 lbs
  • 2008 – R242 lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2009 – R199+ lbs

Sands International Wrist Wrestling/Armwrestling Titles:

  • 1988 – R190 lbs
  • 1989 – R190 lbs, R215 lbs

Sherkston Beaches International Titles:

  • 1987 – R200 lbs, R201+ lbs

SuperStar Showdown Titles:

  • 2004 – R199+ lbs
  • 2005 – R198 lbs

Ultimate Armwrestling (Las Vegas) Titles:

  • 2004 – R242 lbs
  • 2005 – R198 lbs, L198 lbs
  • 2006 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs

Ultimate Armwrestling League Titles:

  • 2011 – R200 lbs (Current Champion)

USAA National Pro-Am Titles:

  • 1996 – R200 lbs, R201+ lbs
  • 1997 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs
  • 1998 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 1999 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2000 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L242 lbs, L243+ lbs
  • 2001 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L242 lbs, L243+ lbs
  • 2002 – R198 lbs, R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L198 lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2003 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 2004 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L242 lbs
  • 2005 – R242 lbs
  • 2006 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 2007 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs
  • 2009 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs, L242 lbs, L243+ lbs
  • 2010 – R242 lbs, R243+ lbs

USAF Unified National Title:

  • 2005 – R220 lbs

WAF World Championship Titles:

  • 1999 – L100 kg, Supermatch Winner

WAL Titles

  • 2015 – R: Heavyweight Champion

World Wristwrestling Championship (Petaluma) Titles:

Heavyweight Division

  • R: 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2001

Light Heavyweight Division

  • R: 1998, 2001
  • L: 1998, 2001

Middleweight Division

  • R – 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2001
  • L – 1996, 1998, 2001

Lightweight Division

  • R – 1984

WPAA World Title:

  • 1985 – Middleweight

Yukon Jack National/World Titles:

Heavyweight Division

  • R: 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993,

Middleweight Division

  • R: 1995, 1996.

Zloty Tur/Nemiroff World Cup Titles:

Open Cat.

  • R: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Cat. 95 kg

  • R: 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
  • L: 2007, 2009

Key:
R – Right Hand
L – Left Hand

References

  1. ^ "Perfect Storm John Brzenk". Theual.com. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  2. ^ Graney, Ed (2009-06-20). "Ed Graney: Top arm wrestler quashes myths". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  3. ^ a b "Pulling John". Pulling John. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  4. ^ Records, Guinness World (2000-05-02). Guinness World Records 2000. Bantam. ISBN 9780553582680.
  5. ^ Lowitt, Bruce (1992-07-16). "Defending champ says it's not all in the arm". St. Petersburg Times. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  6. ^ Hamilton-Irvine, Gary (2015-06-13). "Broken bones common for arm wrestlers". New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  7. ^ Stout, Glenn; Moehringer, J. R. (2013-10-08). The Best American Sports Writing 2013. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0547884578.
  8. ^ http://theual.com/puller/left_hand_heavy_weight/perfect_storm_john_brzenk
  9. ^ http://www.walunderground.com/news/news-details/mr.-excitement-the-irresistible-force-of-john-brzenk
  10. ^ Robinson, Doug (1994-08-14). "Over-the-top sport has quiet champ". The Deseret News. Retrieved 2017-12-05.
  11. ^ Television Guide. Triangle Publications. 2006-01-01.
  12. ^ Tchividjian, Tullian; Lannon, Nick (2015-01-01). It Is Finished: 365 Days of Good News. David C Cook. ISBN 9781434708991.
  13. ^ a b "Brzenk, 4 others seek arm wrestling titles". The Deseret News. 1996-09-13. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  14. ^ Calhoun, Bob (2010-05-14). "Straight to DVD: "Pulling John," arm wrestling's holy grail". Salon.com. Archived from the original on 2010-07-26. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  15. ^ "Watch The The Greatest Arm Wrestler In History Take On His Toughest Opponents". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  16. ^ [1]
  17. ^ "Results: A1 Russian Open 2014 • Armwrestling". Xsportnews.com. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
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