Andy Bolton Deadlift Challenge a Go

Hells yea!

Will Andy Bolton compete or is his record just on the line?

Either way this will be GREAT!

Yes, Andy will be competing in this

Wow. Amazing stuff.

Rock and roll hall of fame? What a venue!

Andy B to smash his own record and blow the competition away - dont bet against it!

Awesome! I might have to drive to Cleveland to see this.

Dude, this is going to be one crazy a$$ meet! They could sell tickets and use some of that money as prize money, I'd pay 50+ bucks to be there.

IS it just belts or multiply deadlift suits??? I read on sugden that it was possibly just belts. Would be great to see what Andy pulls raw as i understand he has pulled 430kg raw 4-5 years ago.

This is suits and belts allowed. 3 pulls.

Who's the 10 that will be invited?

Bolton
KK
Chuck Fought
Vlad Alhazov
Andrey Malainichev
Brad Gillingham
Bennie
Savickas (will be hard when he already competes in strongman up to 20 times a year in Europe)
Mikhail Koklyaev (did 892 raw and barely missed 914 in a full meet, again difficult since he competes in strongman)
Derek Poundstone?

MArk Felix should be there as well. If there is enough money up for grabs I'm sure Savickas and Koklyaev would compete.

You know the thing I like about Bolton is that he is a competitor.

We have so few competitors in this sport it seems. Unfortunately we have a surplus of guys that would say "I lift against myself" or would change weight classes to dodge better lifters or go to a "special" meet to hit the right number as opposed to the meet where their competition is.

How about head to head competition and the strongest lifter is the best and the others are not. Let's grow some balls people. Hats off to you Mr. Bolton.

That is a great idea a live internet broadcast of the event. It is not that hard to do.

Alexander Klyushev should be invited too. He's done several powerlifting meets and has put up 400+ kg pulls.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVX74UA00r8

With all due respect to Andy, KK and everyone else, I want to see Benedikt Magnusson. If Benni comes to this meet I would seriously consider driving up there to see it. I know hes been doing his strongman thing for a while, but hes got so much potential to break the deadlift record again in powerlifting. The guy is such a nice guy and the most crazy entertaining of them all. I know you're reading this Benni! Come on man. DO IT!

Heres some crazy video of Benni I'm sure most of you have seen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgQ2M1PDP3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9P_yYBtkBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuRxpqP9BQY

It's a great idea to be sure. Will the promoters fly these great lifters from Eastern Europe to lift in Ohio? I ask because people routinely throw out these hypothetical "battles" between American Joe Schmo versus Eastern European Joe Schmolov with little thought as to the economics. Travel within and from Eastern Europe can by quite costly. While I assume these guys are mostly gainfully employed, jobs in Russia, the Baltic states, Ukraine etc. do not pay very well as compared to Western Europe or the US. A lifter may be committed to competing with the best, but when that will cost him 2 to 4 months salary with no guarantee he will win a dime,

Kevin Nee is pulling around 930 these days; and dont forget poundstone.

Can pre-sell dvd's to go to prize money or set up paypal donation account and pre-sell meet admission tickets so all the money is in the bank on day of meet.

Awesome!!

Marius Pudz is claiming a 924 on the WSM homepage.

Mike Maxwell has already promised $500 to each of the top 5 lifters to just show up and another 2500 to the winner. Would be great if we could get donations to help with expenses to get all the 900 plus pullers together for one huge meet! May mean a smaller purse, but if everyone is locked in to some amount to offset travel u are much more likely to get a bigger draw

I really really want to see this happen but I seriously doubt KK and Benni and most of the other guys will go for it. I hope the prize money say otherwise though.

We are working on the sponsors. I have already guaranteed prize money out of my own pocket so its in my best interest to pull as many sponsors as possible!!

We appreciate everyone's positive feedback and we are going to keep this event interactive with the Powerlifting World. Give us some time to work on the details. We have a few surprises coming that will blow your mind. This is a great opportunity to put all the BULLSHIT aside, have fun, lift big weights and blow the roof off the Hard Rock.

Stay tuned...

Mike Maxwell
www.ironhousezanesville.com

set up a paypal account for donations. let people know how to make them. And make a public tracker so the public can see how much as been donated so we make sure that all of it goes back to the athletes.

www.biolayne.com

Nee wouldnt pull over 900 without jacking the bar.

benni's been out of powerlifting for quite some time now. he can't just come back in no time and lift 950+

Tuscherer just pulled 855 belt only in training & has outpulled Gillingham in comp I believe..

Tuscherer is awesome and one of my favorite pullers, but I don't think he can go toe to toe with these guys. He is IPF/USAPL and these other guys are WPO, UPA, APF, etc. It wouldn't be a fair match.....if you get my point.

Agreed but he's stronger than some in that top 10 list above. Hell, can we even FIND 10 guys that pull mid 900s? LOL

I highly doubt it, since it's only been roughly 12-13 people in history that have pulled 900 pounds or more (under powerlifting meet conditions) with the most recent one being Chuck Fought, if I'm not mistaken.

Didn't Bennie do a meet last year and not even pull 800lbs? What happened?

I wonder if Jeff Everson from "Planet Muscle" magazine would sponsor some of these guys from Europe. He seems to be into the strength side of things. Then he could run an article of the event in his magazine. I like reading those powerlifting articles he writes. He could put the pic of the winning pull on the front page. We definitely have to get Savickas and some of those European pullers involved. I kind of compare this to armwrestling. Everyone in America thought that our guys were the best until they went to Russia. Example John Brzenk vs. Alexey Vovoeda. Those matches were eye openers.

If this is a DL only contest, you might get a lot more 900+ pulls.

Yeah I believe he did a raw meet in 2008 and only got his opener of ~750lbs. I could be wrong. I cant read Icelandic and neither does google translate.

Anyway hes done ~970 before and he does have a year and a half to train so I wouldn't say it's impossible.

This is a great idea please do it I'll throw some in!

This is going to be a historic event. I hope all the 850+pullers show up. It would be cool to see them under the same roof. Will the IPF guys like Gillingham and Siders be able to enter since the IPF doesn't allow there guys to compete in other federations. I hope Gillingham and Siders get involved. Who has the strongest posterior chain in the world?

Here are the first lifters being sent invites.

Andy Bolton
Zydrunas Savickas
Benedict Magnusson
Konstantin Konstantinovs
Mark Felix
Derek Poundstone
Chuck Fought
Brad Gillingham
Ano Turtiainen
Mikhail Koklyaev

Its unsanctioned so it shouldn't be a problem. Wish it was Belts only.

Jeff Hackett.

Great list, but you need to invite 2 more Russians, Alexander Klyushev and Andrey Malanichev.

No Crossfitters made the list???

The pro strongmen on your list compete all over the world for a tour that covers nearly half the calendar year. (Savickas, Magnusson, Felix, Poundstone and Koklyaev.)

Even if they place 3rd they get $8,000+ cash per venue + all travel expenses paid in advance.

What do you think your chances are getting them to show up?

Would be better if there were 15 lifters and not 10. We don't want any bickering about what could have been after the event takes places. All the top Europeans must be there, the Russians included.

Benni deadlifted 400 kg raw this summer without much training. Don't count him out!

last summer*

hahahahahahahaha

I guess it depends on how badly they want the world recognition of being the best..PERIOD. Don't rule out good prize money from us...ya never know what we have up our sleeves!!!

didn't he tear I bicep/is still recovering?
on his youtube channel you can only see him posting old vids and some weird sh*t

tibor has pulled over 900 but last few i have seen him lift he hits around 860 and vlad i am pretty sure he has knee problems we will not please eveybody we can only do our best,

We will probably set up a paypal account for donations. We are also looking into making this a live stream payperview event.

If you are donating via a business, like a gym, you can make checks payable to Gorilla Pit and we will provide your business with a receipt and a pot will be posted with growth check marks so everyone can see how the fan prize purse is growing.

A list of donations will also be posted so that the public can keep track of their donations. Amounts will be kept private unless you are ok with us posting the amount.

Any donations would be returned if it was a two person show...obviously. Any and all donations are only to increase the purse size for the athletes.

Ty, Alex and Mike...

How about a Bench press challenge in the morning.

Maybe a squat in the afternoon.

Then bring out the meat wagon for the biggest pull prime time for an evening show.

Then we gather for drinks at the after perty.

!0 benchers ...Ryan Kennely Bench Press Challenge
10 squatters ...Vlad Alhazov Squat Challenge
10 pullers ...Andy Bolton Deadlift Challenge

Putt Houston.... now with Ridiculous BCWW

No disrespect to any of the big deadlifters, but I still like watching the guys in the 75kg-90kg range deadlifting 4 to almost 5X their bodyweights. I know first hand that just because you beef up to 300+ does not mean you can pull 900+, but there is something to be said for pound for pound strength. However to potentially see a couple 1000+ deadlifts is almost to good to miss!

Link/vid?
Jeff

invite 15 to 18 guys thats a flight as a few will drop out, if you invite 10 and 3 or 4 dont show bit of a spectater let down

If I wasn't laid off I'd donate. This is a great idea !! We should do a PayPal Unification Federation. PPUF Rocks. Capitalism at its best. We could make this sport grow enormously with that mentality.

I really hope this shapes up nicely. It would be absolutely amazing to have all these 900+ pullers together! I hope this works out!

How about calling Oscar de la Hoya and getting him to promote it on pay per view? $19.99 a shot? I know I would pay for it.

What about Gary Frank?, and Ed Coan?

no disrespect intended because ed coan and gary frank are two of the best lifters ever, but do you really think either of them would be able to hang with savickas, bolton, kk, etc in 2011?

Come on Jon that was funny, no harm in a little fun is there?

Jeff Hackett.

ULTIMATE SIZE, STRENGTH, AND STAMINA
www.fitstep.com
www.extremeselfprotection.com

Everyone keeps bringing up Mikhail Koklyaev and Vlad Alhazov. I thouht that Vlad retired because if his knee injury and Mischa was in jail for that hit-and-run

Mike Maxwell will become the Dana White of Powerlifting. Get'r done. Maybe this is the direction the sport needs to go. Bring the best together and get a good marketing plan. You know the NFL is actually pretty boring, but the TV crew has a way of making it really exciting with instant replay and interviews of the players. It just takes a good crew and a decent sponsor. I think more people would be interested in what someone could bench press vs. someone doing the atlas stones. The average viewer can't relate to a 355# stone. Maybe strength sports such as olympic, powerlifting and strongman need to be consolidated to bring more draw power just like MMA did. Kind of like a continuous arnold classic.

Hats off to Andy, he has been competing for years and has improved his deadlift and never avoided competition. Call him what you want, regardless of what fed he lifts in he is a fantastic lifter and competitor that gains interest for our sport. He competed for years in America before anybody really took note of him and earned his stripes. I first saw him pull 402.5kgs in 2001 at the British championships in Southampton and had the pleasure to witness his battle with Benni in 2005 out in Finland. He grew up training with IPF champions Brian Reynolds and Dave Carter. They planted the seed in him and he has cemented his name as the worlds greatest deadlifter. He has been pulling over 400kg every year for the last ten years, that is a record itself and is still going strong. Critics will disagree but at the moment he has the biggest deadlift and I'm sure he will be the first person to shake hands with the man that breaks it

I like the Dana White analogy...we cuss about the same so that's a start. There is going to be a lot going on at the venue leading up to the Deadlift Challenge. We may even have some MMA at the event and we are definitely going to have more lifting events.

Stay tuned, be patient...we have plenty of time to blow it up. Thanks to everyone with POSITIVE feedback.

Mike Maxwell

Shit just got real... start training benni

Misha was cleared of the charges and is competing at the Arnold Classic Strongman in 2 weeks. He tore his bicep last summer but has made a recovery. The contest is over a year away, I'm sure he'll be fine by then.

They should have an armwrestling supermatch between Devon Larrett, John Brzenk, Travis Bagent, Michael Todd, Ron Bath and Denis Cyplenkov. A Brzenk vs. Larrett rematch would be awesome. Brzenk was undefeated for years in "Supermatches" until Larratt dethroned him recently. Heartbreaker. Cyplenkov vs. Bagent is another match everybody wants to see. These guys will show up too. They go all over the place including overseas. JOHN BRZENK vs. DEVON LARRATT SUPERMATCH as an exhibition before the deadlifting begins. I promise you the followers will be watching.

MUST WATCH VIDEO and Read the comments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2nk5aVz6zs dethroned him.

What would be really cool is to have a couple mma fights with ex-powerlifters or current powerlifters! Mike Miller comes to mind, that would be awesome!!!

10 yrs ago, this would have been a good idea. Neither lifter can pull close to what they used to.

Does Mike Miller do MMA?

http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Mariusz-Pudzianowski-57308

I think Poundston is a must in thi comp..

Didn't reza-zadeh claim a 900+ pull as well? why is he forgotten? what about all the other SHW oly lifters, im sure they can deadlift big

There should definitely be some O-lifters on the list. Is Mark Henery still training?

Jeff Hackett.

YES but this isn't the meet for formula lifting. That a whole other meet.

Wow this is awesome. If I would be rich I would get a greencard just to see this!

Did he get a DUI? Jail time?

Chris, if I'm not mistaken, Andy pulled 400kg as a Junior 20 years ago. I haven't heard Brian Reynolds' name in a long time. Didn't he try out as a professional boxer?

Since this is an unsanctioned meet, what if someone pulled 1009+ lbs ? Since it was at an unsanctioned meet, it wouldn't count as a WR, would it ?

Mariusz vs. Fedor Emelianenko. Have them two as an opener before the deadlifting begins. Have Bruce Buffer announce.

Rezazedah No doubt. This is the only person that I think could possibly outlift Savickas and Bolton. Total wise. He's like Shane Hammann, but stronger. Just think of the power off the floor Reza has, especially after pulling 580+lb clean and presses all the time. He's definitely a sleeper. Makes you wonder sometimes. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an olympic lifter that could pull over a thousand.

Don't write Benni off. He never stopped training even though he stopped competing internationally. He was busy having a baby and opening his gym.

He won an Icelandic deadlifting meet on July 18th 2009 with a very easy 400kg (882 lbs) and didn't take his 3rd attempt (http://kraftaheimar.net/?p=3090) and a training buddy of his tells me lifted 450kg (992 lbs) in training recently with a standard bar and wearing only a belt.

Chuck Vogelpohl doesn't need to pull 900 to eligible. He's a tough guy. Tough as they come. You want a total show you invite Mr intensity Chuck V.
He's a total badass!

Shane's best contest pull was around 733. Very strong but not great at deadlifts. Reza would not pull close to 900.

Zydrunas No.1 + there is no match not even close.

I think entrance into the competition should not be by invitation only! They could be setting them self up for failure. Some one said it well earlier, if you send out 10 or 15 invites maybe only half will show (i.e. economic hardship, injury, etc). They should make entrance into the comp based of lifter resume and or a documentable deadlift. Lets invite anybody who is anybody!!! If they have a fathomable shot and want to establish them self as the greatest deadlifter alive, let them. So in the case of individuals like Hossein Rezazadeh, Mariusz Pudzianowski, Kevin Nee, Mark Henry,Alexander Klyushev, Andrey Malanichev and others let them enter. If we want to get real particular just sponsor air fair for the most favored title contenders from over seas.

-Sean Meyer