John Brzenk

John Brzenk

John Brzenk
Born (1964-07-15) July 15, 1964
McHenry, Illinois, US
Residence Mesa, Arizona, US
Nationality American
Other names "The Golden Boy" "The Perfect Storm"
Occupation Arm wrestler
Height 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight 90 kg (200 lb) to 102 kg (225 lb)
Title World champion
Religion Christian

John Brzenk (born July 15, 1964) is a professional armwrestler from the United States. He competes in the Ultimate Armwrestling League, 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 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 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, 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

Training and strength feats

Achievements

A1 Russian Open:

AAA Stand-Up National Titles:

Arnold Classic Titles:

AWI World Titles:

Carling O’Keefe International Titles:

Forsa Tropical International Titles:

GNC Pro Performance Title:

GOLDEN BEAR Titles: SUPERMATCH (Absolut Champion)

Pro tournament

Harley Pull Titles:

Main Event Titles:

Mike Gould Classic Titles:

Mohegan Sun PAC World Titles:

Over the Top World Title:

Reno Reunion Titles:

ROTN Titles:

Sands International Wrist Wrestling/Armwrestling Titles:

Sherkston Beaches International Titles:

SuperStar Showdown Titles:

Ultimate Armwrestling (Las Vegas) Titles:

Ultimate Armwrestling League Titles:

USAA National Pro-Am Titles:

USAF Unified National Title:

WAF World Championship Titles:

WAL Titles

World Wristwrestling Championship (Petaluma) Titles:

Heavyweight Division

Light Heavyweight Division

Middleweight Division

Lightweight Division

WPAA World Title:

Yukon Jack National/World Titles:

Heavyweight Division

Middleweight Division

Zloty Tur/Nemiroff World Cup Titles:

Open Cat.

Cat. 95 kg

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 2010-08-11.
  3. 1 2 "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 0547884575.
  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 2010-08-11.
  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. 1 2 "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. 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. ↑
  17. ↑ "RESULTS: A1 Russian Open 2014 • ARMWRESTLING •". Xsportnews.com. Retrieved 2015-11-25.

External links

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