5 MMA fighters who can lift insane weights
When a 77 kg Royce Gracie toppled a line of giants like dominoes at UFC 1, it marked the first of several groundbreaking evolutions in MMA. All of a sudden, people were awestruck by this unheralded but deadly art called Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and size was knocked off its pedestal by technique.
Then came the era of the wrestlers who broke people with their physicality and toughness, swinging the spotlight on strength and conditioning. Since then, it has become a mainstay in any MMA fighter's training regime, except in the lighter weight classes where putting on muscle can be a detriment.
But in heavier weight classes, strength and power are a calling card and many times, life savers. We've seen numerous instances where a fighter looked all but out of it and then shocks everyone into silence with a one-hitter quitter. But like Kendrick Lamar says, there are levels to this and even amongst the giants, there are those who stand out because of their truly inhuman strength and power.
Let's take a look at a few of them:
5: Tank Abbott
MMA fans who scoff when their hallowed sport is compared to pro-wrestling should rewind to the dark ages, namely the first UFC events. And to narrow it down further, the case of one David Lee Abbott, or as he's more famously known, Tank Abbott. A prominent high school and junior college wrestler who later learned to box, Abbott once beat an unruly customer in the liquor shop he worked at and wound up behind bars for six months.
He soon gained notoriety as a bar brawler/street fighter and caught the eye of the UFC, who added him to UFC 6: Clash of the Titans. Taking a leaf out of pro-wrestling, he was billed as "Tank" Abbott,(after Tank Murdock, a character who's a street fight legend in the Clint Eastwood-starrer "Any which way but loose") a Californian "pit fighter" who had been in over 200 street fights and could bench press 600 lbs or 272 kg.
Abbott also had a stint in WCW, where he was supposed to feud with Goldberg but it never materialized. The veteran who retired in 2013 now hosts his own podcast, "The Proving Ground with Tank Abbott", and also penned his autobiography, "Bar Brawler", a few years ago. While it's difficult to verify his street fighting record, here's a video of Abbott bench pressing 600 lbs, which is the same as a large adult grizzly bear: