Hafthor 501kg deadlift

[mitchless]

Completely agree. Thor said he was going to drop something like 30 kilos but that still puts him at 375-ish and Eddie isn't much less. They are both going to gas so fast neither will be doing much of anything by round 3.

This seems to be a common sentiment, but I think it's wrong. Both of these men are high-level athletes, competing in other sports before they came to Strongman -- Eddie was a swimmer, Hafthor a basketball player. Strongman is also not powerlifting -- the loading events involve a LOT of fast movement. They also have a year and a half to train, and it has been observed that while strength is slow to acquire and slow to fade conditioning can be acquired rather quickly.

I've watched some video of both of them boxing. Eddie's was a charity match that seemed pretty low energy, while Hafthor's appeared to be a training session. Both videos were years old, and neither looked great. Hafthor clearly has the reach advantage and knows how to leverage it. Neither of these men, however, is Mike Tyson. That is, they do not show a lot of speed and I don't believe that can be trained into them. Neither do they show great technique but that can be taught, and in 17 months it can be learned pretty well.

The biggest problem they are going to have is that I don't think either of them is accustomed to getting hit in the face. They'll need to enlist some real heavy hitters as training partners and get ready to take that slam. These are brutally strong men, and if they get the technique right they will throw devastating punches. They both need to learn how to receive and recover.

[dalan]

This seems to be a common sentiment, but I think it's wrong. Both of these men are high-level athletes, competing in other sports before they came to Strongman -- Eddie was a swimmer, Hafthor a basketball player. Strongman is also not powerlifting -- the loading events involve a LOT of fast movement. They also have a year and a half to train, and it has been observed that while strength is slow to acquire and slow to fade conditioning can be acquired rather quickly.

I've watched some video of both of them boxing. Eddie's was a charity match that seemed pretty low energy, while Hafthor's appeared to be a training session. Both videos were years old, and neither looked great. Hafthor clearly has the reach advantage and knows how to leverage it. Neither of these men, however, is Mike Tyson. That is, they do not show a lot of speed and I don't believe that can be trained into them. Neither do they show great technique but that can be taught, and in 17 months it can be learned pretty well.

The biggest problem they are going to have is that I don't think either of them is accustomed to getting hit in the face. They'll need to enlist some real heavy hitters as training partners and get ready to take that slam. These are brutally strong men, and if they get the technique right they will throw devastating punches. They both need to learn how to receive and recover.

Valid points. They are athletic to be sure. Strongmen have to be able to move, unlike powerlifting, as you mentioned. My thinking(?) was this - a long strongman event lasts a minute or two at most, then they have probably an hour or more between events as other competitors take their turn and for event set up and all that. Boxing is obviously three minutes on, one minute off so I believe endurance will be a factor. 350 pounds of muscle is still 350 pounds that has to be supplied with oxygen. But who knows. I'll for sure watch it if I can do it for free. I ain't paying for it, lol.

Cheers!

[jbackos]

One of the lift's commentators, English strongman Laurence Shahlaei, talked about that. He said a lot of the giant guys can't get a big breath with a conventional setup, so they roll the bar out to open their chest up a little more. I'd always wondered about that too.

You need to check out the clip of Don Reinhoudt deadlifting 886

[Robin UK]

They are strongmen and should stick to what they do best. Deadlifting with straps (or Sumo) is not deadlifting. As for the boxing? It’s a shame they both don’t have a bit more of Doug Young’s attitude about them. They have become clowns now. But honour has a price I guess.

[Theseahawk]

They are strongmen and should stick to what they do best. Deadlifting with straps (or Sumo) is not deadlifting. As for the boxing? It’s a shame they both don’t have a bit more of Doug Young’s attitude about them. They have become clowns now. But honour has a price I guess.

I think if they want to fight and agree that the fight will be under the rules of boxing, then that’s fine. But I’d have a lot more respect for it they weren’t using it as a huge payday.

[Mark Rippetoe]

There would be absolutely no reason to do it without a huge payday. An athlete at that level gets paid to risk a career-ending injury.

[Theseahawk]

There would be absolutely no reason to do it without a huge payday. An athlete at that level gets paid to risk a career-ending injury.

Then they should stop pretending its about settling a score.

[Mark Rippetoe]

How old are you? This is business.

[Theseahawk]

How old are you? This is business.

I agree. They should stop pretending otherwise.

Eddie won’t compete in strongman anymore or go for the strongman deadlift record again. But is pretending this is about settling their differences with a boxing match. If the fight wasn’t saleable, then they wouldn’t fight. So it’s not about settling anything.

But once you take that away, it’s a boxing match between two men who haven’t grown up through that sport. It’s not like it’s for any ranking. In which case, it’s some high money nonsense.

[CommanderFun]

Then they should stop pretending its about settling a score.

It makes it more fun and engaging for the audience when the rivalry is played up. And of course they're gonna make money off it. They should. I doubt they make the kind of money that top professional US sports league players can pull in. Don't be a communist. No one's forcing anyone to pay to see the thing. If they don't think it's worth the money, they won't pay for it. Simple as that.