BoxRec

Just goes to show you, big muscles don't necessarily win fights. Any of us big fight fans knew that already, but the general public is unaware of this a lot of the time.

Anderson was capable of lifting over three tons in a backlift, a feat that has not been replicated since he did this in the 1960's, which makes him arguably the strongest man in history other than possibly the giant Angus McAskill of St. Anne's, Nova Scotia. Anderson was only 5'9" but weighed over 350 pounds of solid muscle. I do know that he was quite the agile man, he once actually competed in a foot race with one of the fastest men in the world at the time and though he lost he wasn't that far behind the man at the finish. In 1979 when the first "World's Strongest Man" competition Anderson demonstrated pushing a 750 pound wheel barrow uphill and for being an inactive strongman for several years he was still very strong and moved at a quick pace. Problem with men such as this, is two things: lack of fluidity in their movements and punches, and muscularity versus cardiovascular. The lungs simply cannot produce enough oxygen to supply muscles that enormous when they are put to rigorous activity. Still, I wonder just how hard the world's strongest man's punches were.

What about Alexis from Russia? Or was he a juicer?

BoxBuzz wrote:What about Alexis from Russia? Or was he a juicer?

Jon Cole surpassed the great Alexia of Russia. I would imagine he was a juicer @ Alexia. Just because you aint defined, etc doesnt mean you weren't on the juice. I do think there is a stark difference though between weightlifting versus strongman feats. Ive seen many a competitive Olympic weightlifter fail in the WSM contests, and vice versa.

Here's an new article which touches on Anderson's debut & short career & also lists Bill Nieder's fight also

Boxers 2, Strongmen 0 - http://www.boxing.com/boxers_2_strongmen_0.html

Here's a article dealing with Andersons weight lifting career

The Strength Legacy of Strongman Paul Anderson - http://www.charlespoliquin.com/Articles ... erson.aspx


I know this is the Anderson thred but following on from the first article link, here's some info on Bill Nieder

Here's sports illustrated take on the Nieder fight 'like A Little Lost Puppet' - http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... AG1072612/

His Olympic Stats - http://www.sports-reference.com/olympic ... der-1.html

Something I was not aware of but shows the type of man Nieder is

77 year old Bill Nieder Restrains Passenger on Airplane - http://speedendurance.com/2011/05/11/77 ... -airplane/

Got this image off of a documentary on Youtube about Paul Anderson

HomicideHenry wrote:

Got this image off of a documentary on Youtube about Paul Anderson

Looks pretty fat to me.

The world's strongest man after the Giant MacAskill was Canada's Louis Cyr the Human Elephant. He once withstood the pull of 4 percheron stallions trying to break the clasp of his two hands and raised an elephant off the ground with his back.

mercman wrote:Good post. Over the years, many weightlifters and bodybuilders have tried their hand at boxing but few have had much success. Some people assume that because they are strong then they will be able to fight. However, barbells and dumbells don't move and they don't hit back!

I can attest to this first hand. For over ten years I ran my own grappling/mma gym and all too often we would get big weightlifters/bodybuilders who came in and thought that it would be easy for them due to their size and strength and were quickly shocked when little guys considerably smaller then them where able to handle them rather easily.

Goldust wrote:

mercman wrote:Good post. Over the years, many weightlifters and bodybuilders have tried their hand at boxing but few have had much success. Some people assume that because they are strong then they will be able to fight. However, barbells and dumbells don't move and they don't hit back!

I can attest to this first hand. For over ten years I ran my own grappling/mma gym and all too often we would get big weightlifters/bodybuilders who came in and thought that it would be easy for them due to their size and strength and were quickly shocked when little guys considerably smaller then them where able to handle them rather easily.

Mariusz Pudz is a clear example of this....

Cap wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:

Got this image off of a documentary on Youtube about Paul Anderson

Looks pretty fat to me.

The world's strongest man after the Giant MacAskill was Canada's Louis Cyr the Human Elephant. He once withstood the pull of 4 percheron stallions trying to break the clasp of his two hands and raised an elephant off the ground with his back.

Paul Anderson was only 5'9" and well over 380 pounds in weight. Sheer bulk. I've seen videos of him clean and jerking well over 450 pounds. Don't let appearance fool you, he was all muscle.

As for Louis Cyr, he was remarkable in many aspects, I do believe he may even hold a record or two to this day. HOWEVER, the backlift that he achieved, Anderson surpassed by over 1,400 pounds.

Angus MacAskill, may very well of been the strongest man of all time. At 7'9" and well over 300 pounds in weight, there are various accounts of his strength. Most notably how we once carried an anchor over 1,000 pounds on his shoulder and walked down the wharf with it. It was often noted he would carry 300 pound barrells, one under each arm, and run home with whatever goods that were in the barrells. For my money, though, of men of normal proportions the strongest man pound per pound who ever lived was Zishe Breitbart. Breitbart was only 5'11" and 180-190 pounds and once deadlifted 900 pounds. Such was his overall strength that he once surpported the weight of a two man motor cycle race on his chest, and he could bite through chains. He was best known, though, for bending iron bars into springs--- something even the most formidable of strongmen today are unable to do.

mercman wrote:Good post. Over the years, many weightlifters and bodybuilders have tried their hand at boxing but few have had much success. Some people assume that because they are strong then they will be able to fight. However, barbells and dumbells don't move and they don't hit back!

Leif Larsen (former NFL player although his career was short and shot putter) holds the NFL combine record for bench pressing and got recently KOed by christian hammer.

dominik wrote:

mercman wrote:Leif Larsen (former NFL player although his career was short and shot putter) holds the NFL combine record for bench pressing and got recently KOed by christian hammer.

A lot of guys are really hung up/impressed by bench press numbers. I used to hear the "How much do you bench?" question all the time. I had a 12-1 mma record and if fights were determined by bench press numbers I likely wouldn't have won a fight. I've been backstage and worked corners at many an mma event and I never once heard a losing fighter say "If I had only benched (or squatted) ten more pounds I would have won that fight." The most common thing that I used to hear from the losing fighter was when asked what happened was either "I just got tired" or "I just got caught."

HomicideHenry wrote:

Cap wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:

Got this image off of a documentary on Youtube about Paul Anderson

Looks pretty fat to me.

The world's strongest man after the Giant MacAskill was Canada's Louis Cyr the Human Elephant. He once withstood the pull of 4 percheron stallions trying to break the clasp of his two hands and raised an elephant off the ground with his back.

Paul Anderson was only 5'9" and well over 380 pounds in weight. Sheer bulk. I've seen videos of him clean and jerking well over 450 pounds. Don't let appearance fool you, he was all muscle.

As for Louis Cyr, he was remarkable in many aspects, I do believe he may even hold a record or two to this day. HOWEVER, the backlift that he achieved, Anderson surpassed by over 1,400 pounds.

Angus MacAskill, may very well of been the strongest man of all time. At 7'9" and well over 300 pounds in weight, there are various accounts of his strength. Most notably how we once carried an anchor over 1,000 pounds on his shoulder and walked down the wharf with it. It was often noted he would carry 300 pound barrells, one under each arm, and run home with whatever goods that were in the barrells. For my money, though, of men of normal proportions the strongest man pound per pound who ever lived was Zishe Breitbart. Breitbart was only 5'11" and 180-190 pounds and once deadlifted 900 pounds. Such was his overall strength that he once surpported the weight of a two man motor cycle race on his chest, and he could bite through chains. He was best known, though, for bending iron bars into springs--- something even the most formidable of strongmen today are unable to do.

Where does Milo of Kroton fit into the world's strongest?

Where do you come up with this useless info HomicideHenry?

zojo, wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:

Cap wrote: Looks pretty fat to me.

The world's strongest man after the Giant MacAskill was Canada's Louis Cyr the Human Elephant. He once withstood the pull of 4 percheron stallions trying to break the clasp of his two hands and raised an elephant off the ground with his back.

Paul Anderson was only 5'9" and well over 380 pounds in weight. Sheer bulk. I've seen videos of him clean and jerking well over 450 pounds. Don't let appearance fool you, he was all muscle.

As for Louis Cyr, he was remarkable in many aspects, I do believe he may even hold a record or two to this day. HOWEVER, the backlift that he achieved, Anderson surpassed by over 1,400 pounds.

Angus MacAskill, may very well of been the strongest man of all time. At 7'9" and well over 300 pounds in weight, there are various accounts of his strength. Most notably how we once carried an anchor over 1,000 pounds on his shoulder and walked down the wharf with it. It was often noted he would carry 300 pound barrells, one under each arm, and run home with whatever goods that were in the barrells. For my money, though, of men of normal proportions the strongest man pound per pound who ever lived was Zishe Breitbart. Breitbart was only 5'11" and 180-190 pounds and once deadlifted 900 pounds. Such was his overall strength that he once surpported the weight of a two man motor cycle race on his chest, and he could bite through chains. He was best known, though, for bending iron bars into springs--- something even the most formidable of strongmen today are unable to do.

Where does Milo of Kroton fit into the world's strongest?

Somewhere between Giant MacAskill and the Staffordshire Wolfman.

gilgamesh wrote:Just goes to show you, big muscles don't necessarily win fights. Any of us big fight fans knew that already, but the general public is unaware of this a lot of the time.

Really? I'm fairly uninformed with no boxing experience or connections, but I don't think anyone I know, even my wife or my 11 year old daughter, would think that some big fat strong guy would be likely to make a good boxer.

Cap wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:

Got this image off of a documentary on Youtube about Paul Anderson

Looks pretty fat to me.

The world's strongest man after the Giant MacAskill was Canada's Louis Cyr the Human Elephant. He once withstood the pull of 4 percheron stallions trying to break the clasp of his two hands and raised an elephant off the ground with his back.

For some reason fat guys can be enormously strong. When I was a kid my dad knew a Russian guy nicknamed "Chick." The guy was old and fat and resembled jabba the hut. He chewed tobacco so often that his teeth and shirts were all stained with it. But this guy was STRONG. He would get set and let you pound away as hard as you could on his belly and hed just laugh. He could take iron railroad spikes and bend them, and could put a long steel nail as thick as a pencil between the fingers of one hand and bend it.

Gordon KOs wrote:Where do you come up with this useless info HomicideHenry?

Troll

I heard Paul Anderson had a tremendously high standing vertical jump. I dont remember the exact height he jumped but it was extremely impressive,especially for his size.

Hermann Goerner of Germany,in 1930, deadlifted over 700 lbs with one hand.

That guy that was 7'9,had to have been in the high 300's bodyweight,like 380-390. Low 300's would've made him quite skinny. even 390 would be pretty lean for that kind of height.

"Dennis Rogers" should get noteworthy recognition as one of the strongest Lb for Lb.

On a side note,Theyr'es this one guy from Youtube named Nate,his channel is called "Powabuilda".
This guy curled 150 Lbs with one hand,several times i seem to remember, and at the time he only weighed around 170 lbs. He's got a thin wirey type build.