Full recap of the Men’s division, including the back stories only those at the event know about, the battles, the surprises, what this means for the future and key questions are asked and answered.
Hosted by 6 Pack Lapadat, Eric Helms and Matt Gary
Right now all right fellas six-pack lapid at we got the fellas back uh minus Rory Lynch Rory couldn’t make it you guys don’t seem very sad about that um so we’re we’re gonna do the men’s recap episode and uh for the women’s recap episode we have people who directly
Worked on the Sheffield event um we’re gonna have Amelia Potter who who did the interviews and some of the intro we’re gonna have Joe Whitley who is my commentating host and uh we’re gonna have Sophia Ellis um who’s won European titles British titles but also U has
Worked with SBD as well and was there at the event and but for this podcast it’s our boys Matt Gary ellar Helms and um holy freaking smokes this one lived up and am I we are talking offline before we get we’re going to get into the nuts
And bolts but before we do we were talking offline and if I had to rate this event I thought last ones was amazing I think this one they actually leveled up yet again lived up to the hype the live was crazy they tightened up on some things in the um I know the
Teams got bigger that and and the amount of camera angles and whatnot the sound they’ve leveled up on so many different things the intros were far more detailed and intricate shot with a bigger team um shot ahead of time I was a part of both this year’s and last year’s intros and
Brought in an interview team that shot an intro and Analysis and pulling people aside in between events and they had far just a far more robust stream that you guys saw um and the live was fantastic the live was always fantastic and it’s uh yeah it was it was something else and
I was I was telling Eric as well already 50% sold out for the next year so if you’re wondering how good was it you know how good it was when literally the next day they were 25% sold out already a dayen pass I remember breakfast Benjamin Banks came up to my breakfast table
And said Ryan we’re at 25% and I’m like of what because I’m thinking tickets and that’s pretty nuts because we just wrapped up last night and he said yeah 25% sold out already and I’m home starting my day job trying to get used to the flow talk to Pete Spence and
We’re 50% sold out next year already and people don’t even know who the world champions are who the wild cards are who anything is and we’re already at 50 % we are going to gentlemen where’s this going to be in five years is that is that a question you
Want us to answer all right what’s going on I think we’re actually seeing the delayed response of the participation that picked up um so powerlifting has had a boom over the last I’m gonna say eight years you know that’s been pretty clear and I think now we’re starting to see powerlifting the
Powerlifters get really really really welld developed more so on the men’s side and the competition level going up and that participation crystallizing into what we’re seeing the potential to have these $250,000 pound payouts and money meets um these massive teams World beinging in places like Malta rather than colen um
And you know whole teams getting sponsored by companies like SBD um and unequipped going to world games um the interesting thing that I wonder is are we going to see kind of like we have seen that like we’re we’re paling is still growing don’t get me wrong in
Terms of participation but not at the same rate that it was in the mid teens and I wonder if we’re going to see the the tapering of the benefit of that start to happen I don’t think we hit the peak yet because obviously Sheffield like you just said 50% sold out World
Games hasn’t happened yet I think we still do have a lot of juice left but I I am curious and I’m I’m not I’m not a I’m not a pessimist I definitely don’t want this to be the case I want it to keep growing as fast as possible but I
Do wonder if we’re going to start to see some plateauing in the Heights that powerlifting reaches as far as a spectator sport mainstream popularity because we’ve I think we’re just a few years ahead of the par ipation Rise um and I don’t want that to be the case but
I think that is something worth bringing up because there is seemed to be this kind of disassociative time course where you know it wasn’t it wasn’t 2017 where powerlifting was huge after you know three years of things blowing up it was postco right which you know probably was
Later than it would have been because of covid specifically but I think there is um some delay between participation increasing and then all the financial monetary expansion visibility multimedia rewards that come from that and I wonder if we’re going to start seeing a tapering and maybe a couple years
Towards the end of this this decade I hope not well let let me let me throw the question to Matt but let me also thr my two cents involved um you guys I would be shocked if in your immediate friends and family you knew a professional
Boxer but boxing is massive and what I would post you is we’re starting to reach a point where it doesn’t really matter about participation as much as we’re starting to enter into with the packaging of Sheffield and how it was you know I said it before I’ll say it
Again I listen to MMA podcasts mostly boxing podcasts and just general podcast not powerlifting podcast they come on after Sheffield and they talk about Sheffield and they’re like did you hear about that event Sheffield and I think what we’re starting to see is not just a direct link to participation the
Rlink 100% I think there is that’s undeniable but I think we’re starting to Blossom as an actual sport the way SPD is packaged it you could see this on CBS Sports and people could watch it and not be in powerlifting participate they’ll be sbers they’ll go to the gym they’ll
Be into that but if they continue to package it and lean more heavily into storytelling more it’s going to get more and more you know we had pre pre uh game videos analysis it’ll get more robust and pre all of this the road the Sheffield series will get more robust
And and they’re going to expand on it as they go but I think we might be whether participation or not starting to find a place where we can be viewed and maybe worlds was a maybe Sheffield is a more whiz version of Worlds that can be Digest able andd is going to continue
Down that path of professional powerlifting that’s white sized and if anyone got us on CBS and and it was like let’s see if this will rock maybe this is it maybe this is it maybe we don’t have to be directly tied to the participation Matt what do you
Think because me and you had a conversation you know I call a conversation my man we were both getting emotional you were all up in your fields and I felt you right back and that came off wrong let me reward that I didn’t but you didn’t I didn’t feel you right
Back but we were we were um you know you had seen so much and you’re saying like this is a dream and what you would experience at Sheffield you said back in the 90s early 2000s two 10 from 2010 to 2020 all of it you’ve been in the game
For so long and you were like this is all a dream this is crazy and you experienced it tell me what you were feeling in that moment that made you literally water up with tears in your eyes and um I I’ve been around and I
Know what you mean and and then tell me what you think the future might look like if we continue down this pathway yeah I mean you and I had a real heart to heart conversation there at the meet and greet after the competition and and yeah I was getting quite emotional
And I think I think it just stems from first of all you’re you know when you’re when you’re on this endorphin high immediately after the competition you’re just like your adrenaline has been pumping I’ve been in the trenches you know duking it out with these other coaches and other lifters and so you’re
Trying to kind of collect yourself literally and figuratively but also I just felt this overwhelming sense of gratitude just just so so thankful because it just feels like we’re living in this time of abundance and it just um you know having started you know competing in 1995 and
So I’ve been in this game for almost three decades now and I’ve seen a lot and it’s just the fact that we’ve come literally this far and to see now the second Sheffield unfold and to your point Ryan it was bigger it was better it was more robust it was cleaner it was
It was more well-received I think um every aspect of it they you know we thought that SBD leveled the game up last year well they’ve clearly leveled up yet once again and so coming now having basically 30 years of experience in this and Sport and seeing where we are and then
Realizing at this moment where I think we can go to your point Ryan just was like overwhelming and so I just felt this overwhelming sense of of gratitude and thanks and it just really hit me man and I’m just like my gosh you know we’re
Here and I think we’re at the cusp of another growth spurt potentially because of you know raw and classic being involved in the world games so I mean if we if we look back if we Ry the clock into the late 70s I’m talking like 1977
And 1978 there was and and sometime in the 80s as well um and Eric knows about this as well just being an the iron culturist that he is you know ABC in the United States of America ABC’s Wide World of Sports used to carry powerlifting and featuring the names
Like Doug young and Bill casm and these Behemoth lifters you know being on ABC’s wild w Rough Sports and then it kind of phased after that and fizzled and and there was a time in the early 2000s you know when when ESPN carried uh the Mountaineer cup like I had mentioned on
Our goats podcast and and Eddie Cohen was was featured there and so forth and and then again once again that kind of died out but now we’re seeing you know powerlifting brought to the masses on live streams and so forth and to your point Ryan at Worlds when it’s on the
Olympic Channel and when it’s on um um Eurosport so forth yeah it’s it’s becoming reality in other countries and I think that I think that I understand what Eric say and I agree in terms of the participation and so forth but I think we are about with this next year I think
We’re about to experience another grow spurt and then perhaps maybe it should it might taper off after them but I think once this thing hits the world games in 2025 that is going to create an additional level of exposure for us that we’ve not yet seen because up at until
This point every World Games is of course has been equipped and so now by having classic featured in the world games and presumably some of the personalities and some of the people who will be contending and potentially be in that mix at World Games can just help us
Level up once again and then I think maybe you know a year or two after that it would kind of make sense that maybe things kind of Trail off or level off or something but I you know I’m glass half full all the time or at least I try to
Be that way and I really think that we’re we’re in for another growth here and just the mere fact that you said that already we’re 50% sold out for next year just speaks volumes I mean that’s just like mind blown right like you know before I knew that I was coaching
Natalie Richards Susie and I went ahead and bought tickets for this past Sheffield and we bought ours in May and it took a while I mean I I don’t remember how long it was but I think it didn’t sell out until what maybe one month ahead of the date maybe was it
December we sold out in 2023 okay so at the end of 2020 yeah so let’s just say you know for a sake of conversation about two months prior or a month and a half prior but now we’re like we’re only a week removed not even a week removed and we’re at 50% so
Anyway it’s um man the glass is more than half full from where I’m standing and and I’m just like I said overwhelmingly excited and and and grateful for what’s to come look look at if you put a boxing match together or an MMA fight on the see together if you can sell
Out before you even announce who’s fighting the end is not near yeah it’s all I’m gonna say the end is not year and I would not be surprised if Sheffield 2025 sells out before we have the card established before every lifter is name I I I wouldn’t be
Surprised if it sells out before we have a single lifter confirmed meaning before worlds it’ll sell out before that should tell you all you need to know it’s bigger than any participant it’s bigger than it’s it’s just gotten to be its own thing it’s like Wimbleton it’s our Sheffield and
Um I think in the next five years we’re gonna see it’s going to keep growing and growing um let’s get into the event let’s get into the event shall We Men because we’ve had we’ve had some surprises there’s have been battles um let me toss this one first to you mant
Gustoff hadl won this he was 4.3% to win the battle of the 93s on the esteem of the public how did we get so far off when it comes to 4.3% of people were we this far off on Gustaf Hedland was he that big of an underdog what is the story
Here yeah yeah man I mean it’s just it’s we we like to talk about the winners first and like you said all credit due to gustoff here who finished on an eight for nine day um you know I kind of it’s funny kind of analyzing and digesting
The results I mean having been there clearly I was coaching Natalie Richards on the female side so I was downstairs for a lot of it but you’re checking in with the live stream and now I’ve watched the live stream after the fact and kind of looked at the results and so
Forth and so you know he totaled 895 kilos on an8 for n day and really his eight for n could be what we call an eight and a half or a nine for n because he missed his second bench on a technicality and actually went up right
So so so when you when you miss one on a technicality yet go up and wait and then make it it’s kind of as though you really didn’t even miss the second one but anyway for you know for statistical sake he made eight eight out of nine
Attempts and I think he he overperformed from the standpoint that I think you recall I put out that graphic earlier in the week about you know the the hit rate on a lot of these lifters and so I think looking at gustof statistically he was averaging 6.8 attempts out of nine and
Oftentimes his his storyline was one that he would perform really well when under the tutelage of Carolina arson you know the national team coach for Sweden but oftentimes when she wasn’t in the mix you know he would he would miss some lifts or perhaps be maybe a little bit
More Cavalier what have you but I mean his training was on point the entire time um I think you know I had him projected at finishing at 8 97.5 and he finished at 895 um I certainly did not have him winning um by any stretch of
The imagination so so I think I was really really close on the total but he he I mean we gotta say he overperformed in that he hit more attempts than he’s used to and he won the damn thing and so that’s that that’s what this is all about right particularly on the men’s
Side when there were only a few over the world record and the percentages were much smaller than the women but I think you know the the prohibitive or or proverbial favorite or whatever term we want to use is is gonna be J Jonathan Kao and and and rightfully so I mean
That this guy you know placed second at last year Sheffield and and and kao’s resume is such that you know he really doesn’t miss attempts and and he’s the defending world champion and he’s been through these rigorous battles and every time he’s been challenged by every you
Know oncom if you will he has prevailed and so I think it wasn’t wrong for a lot of us to pick Kao finishing ahead of headin but all credit to gustoff man he showed up and showed out and um silenced the doubters and the naysayers and just
Had a phenomenal meet I mean he pbed in every discipline across the board and that’s ultimately want what you want to do and this is a guy who doesn’t hold the strength in any single discipline to get a world record you know he’s a he’s
A total guy you know what I mean and we talk about squat Specialists and specialist well Gustaf hedin is a total specialist you know and that’s his area of expertise and so I think he really showed that and so I mean I’m just thrilled for him and and um yeah I think
It was it was a huge upset because I I think you know a lot of us had um Jesus winning this thing and it certainly didn’t turn out that way so in that respect I think it was not only a big upset overall but it was an upset within
Within the 93 kilo class as well Eric obviously Jonathan kaico reestablished himself with dominance at the world championships one and for the first time one I don’t think the word easy is the most appropriate but previously it came down to the very last deadlift and he was always in danger
Sensational it’s so fun to watch the 93s at the world championships for the first time we saw Jonathan Kao win and he won by his second deadlift and his last deadlift was a freebie we never saw a Kao like that a lot of people and he
Went nine for n again as he always does or usually does and just dominant performance and people started talking as though has he leveled up on this field Brenan Petri is obviously coming over from usap do we have to wait for Brennan Petri to arrive to see Kao
Really pushed has Kao leveled up and he’s moved Beyond this pack of 93 it’s after that dominating performance at Worlds Sheffield says no what happened with Jonathan kico here did because kico had a PR day it wasn’t like he had a bad day what do you think the storyline is
Here what’s your impression of Kao in the 93s and how he fits in that picture now after watching Sheffield so I think the Battle of 93s you know like like you said it was what 4.5% of people thought headin would come ahead Ryan yeah we got to understand that polling
People is not the same thing as if we had some supercomputer where we could put in all the odds and looked at all the data and it calculated a probability of a headlin versus Kao win that would have probably been something more like 65 35 if I had to guess because each
Individual person is basically their own little data driven algorithm with all the flaws that we see in humans and then they’re going to pick the favorite and if most people think there’s a 60% chance of of Kao winning then it’s going to be 95% people pick King Kao so I
Think I think we need to acknowledge that that that I don’t think there was a lot of people that were completely surprised by Gustav’s ability to win but he still was not favored it wasn’t the same as say Eevee being Place 12th in coming in or I like for example I would
Say that Carlos Peter Griff Griffin’s performance was was more surprising even though he placed I think seventh than say gustavs um or or or Kiko Gustav I think people forget he’s played second at Worlds three times in the open division he has always been capable of
Winning a world title he just hasn’t had everything come together at the same time as even on a good day it wasn’t necessarily the greatest possible day for his competitive field so you know in some ways I think we can look at this and we could say you know
Maybe the ceiling for Gustav is has not been he’s been more poorly represented by his performances than Kao Kao the downside of being Mr Perfect as you labeled him and being someone who always goes eight for n or 9 for n and always being relatively close to his topend
Strength even on a quote unquote bad day for him you know he’s he’s more like a 98% lifter than someone else who might be 95% is that his range is relatively predictable so it you know worlds he did really really well and and he did have
That that time he didn’t need all nine of his attempts but I think that was probably more the outlier than actually Sheffield was and I think what we finally saw was everything come together for Gustaf because like like I said I don’t think anyone was like shocked or
Surprised that Gustav won they were just like yeah someone capable put it together and they had the right day um it’ll be I’m actually more interested in seeing where Gustaf goes than to answer your question about Koo I I think it’s too early to say oh no k’s at his Peak
You know he’s he’s older you know we seen him at his best and he’s not going able to hang even though he had a good day um but I I do think that we haven’t seen enough of these bannered like heo has had a lot of really really good
Performances where he’s been close to what his Peak is and even if he’s still incrementally going up even a very good day as he’s improving will’ll have a relatively predictable increase in his total like I could see him next year just getting around 900 awesome but
Gustaf I I don’t know that those two things haven’t converged yet so it may be that um that we’re just getting to see a Gustav who’s refining his skill I mean it wasn’t too long ago you know that Gustav won his his Junior World title and um you know may maybe maybe
Gustaf is peing a little bit later and we’re going to see a higher potential out of him and that’s also coming at the same time as him really being able to put together one of these better executed days as a powerlifter as an athlete rather than just a strong individual
Um good points speaking of someone whom we’ve been long waiting to put it all together but had po has always had potential Gavin Aiden we said man if he can ever get three squats together the world’s in trouble Gavin Aiden finally did it got three squats together and it was the bench press
Always something is happening with Gavin you speak with Gavin afterwards and and we’ll have him on the podcast again for sure but he was like man it’s always something and the bench press um you know obviously you missed the bench there a key bench but even then he’s
Bench 220 and the attempt even was much lower than that so something was going on with his bench press period coming in Gavin Eden if he has a Gustaf Headland day and he can actually meet his PRS Gustaf hadin was pring all around if Gavin can do that what are we looking at
Here Matt Gavin’s young he’s the youngest of these three that we’re mentioning can he pull himself together and do a gof what’s going on with Gavin Eden and what were your thoughts watching this yeah I mean the short answer to your question is yes he certainly can he
Certainly is capable of doing what gustoff hedin did I think to your point um to your point Ryan um you know Gavin finished exactly where I thought he would I picked Gavin to come in fourth I also had Gavin finishing at 892 he finished at 887 um I believe that Gavin
Overperformed in the sense that um you know he’s used to making 7.3 attempts he made eight this time um and to your point he made the squats and that’s what we’ve been waiting for and so now the narrative you know and the conversation has changed um he came out and and
Decided to you know um the the whole I’m thinking of of the Frank Sinatra song my way you know where he he he decided to do it my way and he and he put the world record on the bar for the second one and absolutely buried it I think it was you
Know again I was watching the live stream but I’ve watched a couple different angles of it and so forth and I thought it was a three white light lift it looked absolutely phenomenal and then he added a few more kilos for that third attempt I thought that one
Appeared to be higher he got a two to one decision my wife Susie got a really good quality video of it and a good angle and her video actually looks better than the live stream angle so I actually told him that I was like hey
Man you know that was a two to one lift but after seeing my wife’s video it actually looks better so congratulations and I was really excited for him so you know he hit a 10 kilo PB in the squat and also if my records
Are correct um he hit a 12 and a half kilo PB in the deadlift you know switching over to Conventional now as opposed to Sumo so um perhaps uh you know less variability and performance there and so we saw an uptick in performance but to your point I think
The one thing here that kind of surprised us was of course the bench press and I don’t want to speak for Gavin he’s gonna come on the podcast I really didn’t ask him I know that um you know he had a significant weight cut he
Was um the last person I think to step on the scale um you know being in the in the in the weigh-in area there we were waiting for Gavin and I know some of the officials were looking for him him and Kedrick was kind of you know um sweating
It there you know literally and figuratively but Gavin did make weight but I think you know perhaps I mean that that that’s just the only thing that I can think I have no idea what his bench training was like but like to your point
Ryan he’s got a 220 kilo PB in the bench press and and so for him to actually finish the day with what did he finish with he finished with 205 so we have we see this uptick performance with the squat and the deadlift but a downtick performance in the bench and I don’t
Know if that was due to the weight cut and having to sauna off those extra kilos at the end or what have you but I’m sure G Gavin will speak to that but all in all I mean I think Gavin he finished where I thought he would finish
But he’s now changed the narrative because he’s had three successful squats and the world record is his and so now if he can continue that Trend and look man sometimes it just takes breaken through once right it just takes having a meet where you make three lifts and
You regain your not that he ever lost his Swagger at all I think G’s very conf you know what I mean but but maybe there was something missing there or there was this tinge of of of of Doubt not doubt in his ability but like damn doubting
Can I meet the standard you know what I mean and now that he’s proving that he can you know and and um yeah so I I see no reason why that Trend can’t continue you know I I I I don’t think I’m speak
Alone when I say I you know a lot of us hope that this trend continues and that when he does put it together when he does you know get his bench back in order you know maybe again like I said if that was the weight cut or maybe
There was some issue in training if he does get that back in order then yeah there’s I mean it’s within reason that he’s going to be over 900 kilos which is I think where we expect him and I think where we expect a lot of these lifters gustoff
Included Gavin just bench what he he previously did we don’t even need to talk about he has potential to bench more meat no no if he just done what he’s already done he’d be over 900 kilos and he would have won this battle of 93s he would have won
Sheffield if anyone’s wondering why Gavin keeps getting invited back I say keeps it’s only been twice acting like it’s a long-standing six seveny year whatever run but if anyone’s wondering why you know well he got invited again and we keep talking about Gavin Aiden this is why if he Gustaf hedin ironically just
Proved why and and this doesn’t take you don’t have to be a big Gavin fan to be saying this just look at the lifts he’s already completed and what he’s proven he can already do and he just needs a day where he puts it together and he
Will be over 900 kilos and he will win a battle of 93s he could win Sheffield and who knows maybe he’s on his way to winning worlds and that’s that becomes and for a guy like Gustaf who appeared in 2018 Calgary and when the junior worlds out total everybody in the open
And ever since we’ve been waiting for him he out total the open as a junior and we’re all like well he’s a future star and it’s Tak from 2018 to nangle this is what I would say to Gavin Aiden and all of his fans it can come
Together hang in the pocket and stay and stay the course um so I don’t know you know there’s talk about him moving to 83 or whatever the hell I think he still got work to do as a 93 even though yeah agre even though the the outcome was what it was I think
It’ be too early to leave and ironically enough again I think I think Gustaf underlines that yeah look I mean Gavin’s got nothing to be upset about I mean he had a that’s a seven kilo uh seven kilo bump PB on his total right whereas
Gustaf had a 15 kilo PB on his total you know what I mean and I don’t know that anybody anticipated that much of a boost you know for for for gusta so I mean jaavin had a great day you know and he and he came in fourth place and so I
Mean yeah it look get the bench together and yeah and put the others together and keep making progress and you’re at 900 plus my man Carlos Peterson Griffith wanted to come into Sheffield and prove he was worthy he came through as a wild card through the Regionals and I don’t know
If this is just good luck we’re only two years deep or if people are going to continuously level up because it’s Sheffield but for a guy who ENT worlds and competed in group b didn’t even make prime time coming at the Sheffield Regional a lot of people weren’t
Expecting much and then he started appearing on podcasts and all of a sudden people who doubted him were like whoa he is far too confident and then he sent me that one deadlift double of 365 kilos 804 pounds and I and on the podcast he was like I
Don’t want to post it or whatever but I’ve hit some big numbers when he dm’ me that I said Carlos not only do you have to post this we’ll collab the world needs to see it the powerlifting needs to see it and obviously I’m working the
Sheffield event so I want people to be excited and and it helps the the excitement of it but even then the powerlifting Community needed to see Eric have we seen a new Contender emerge is he here to stay 100 approve upon this yeah 100% I mean I
Want to say His Highest register total was 845 before this we were just talking about the shocking 15 kilo Improvement by you know Gustaf hedin is it 30 this is 30 kilos so um 875 is a very respectable total and the deadlift was the heaviest deadlift in the competition
And he’s not a 105 he’s not a 120 he’s not a 120 plus he’s a 93 now granted the deadlift is one of those lifts that starts to taper off with higher weight classes but that’s a extremely impressive deadlift and oh by the way he did have the squat world record for a
Second there you know it was 331 and he had 332.5kg yeah he’s got a long way to go on the bench so that that tends to go hand inand no pun intended with with being a good deadlifter but he also improved his bench a lot which which was impressive
You know so I don’t think um we we know this gentleman’s ceiling but I think he has made it made a very clear statement um there are people there are names who placed behind Carlos who have a little more respect on their name and I think that rightfully I think that that should
Change you know he placed ah head of Anatoli and World Champion K you know Johansen Jesus of Harris Jesus which we’ll talk about I think there there there’s more caveats to that um right you know I think we all had a lot of us had kiyota on on the
Platform you know he placed 10th so the the men’s didn’t shake out the way we anticipated um and a lot of ways and not just the the the podium and one of them was that I think Carlos Peterson Griffith uh really showed up and showed
Out and he has earned his respect and I think anyone who was maybe ey rolling it his his his confidence on the podcast they had proved it yet or Swagger um I hope they now see like oh [ __ ] like he had a reason to to to to to to display
That and I I was really good to see because I think it speaks to some of the hardto quantify elements of sport that when you are put in an environment where everyone around you is leveling up true athletes find a way um to do something to improve uh and and I think the
Sheffield is a really great Battleground for that and when you get asked hey you like you said Ryan you teed that up well you were top of the pile in the B group and now you’re getting a regional pick the chip on your shoulder is something
That a real athlete will just want to like smash on the ground and and and show everybody like oh I’ll show you you think I don’t deserve to be there um and I think he did that and I think it was really cool and I think um I I I i’
Would be surprised if he didn’t you know now like I’ve made my statement let’s go you know I think that I think that will continue to motivate him yeah just snowballing off that his Improvement was phenomenal his bench press is respectable if not near the top and become respectable Into the 400s Now
World record squat biggest deadlifter in the world right now in his weight class if he continues to work like he is like and all he wanted coming into this event was to prove he belonged now he belonged I talked to him after the event that Swagger ain’t going nowhere everyone
Thought he had Swagger coming into this he’s like now everyone knows I belong now it’s time to take over uh very interested in seeing where he takes it from here because I think we’re GNA see look he’s already at 875 a lot of these guys are falling into
The 880s will he put on 10 kilos by Worlds I would not doubt that one second could he surpass of these guys who were previously ahead of him I would not doubt that for one second he is now in the mix and when you’re talking about
The top 93s you’re gonna have to insert his name now talking about the top 93s gentlemen I want to throw Brenan Petrie’s name in the mix he’s a 90 and he’s done phenomenal in the 880s I believe 8 87.5 now he’s gonna get to throw three more kilos of body weight
On and he’s going to enter the 93s I want you to take all of these gentlemen who lifted at Sheffield all of these gentlemen in the ipf and I want you to add Brenan Petri on potential alone if you want and I’m gonna ask both of you right
Now who is the number one 93 in the world you GNA go first Matt I’ll follow you Eric be Beauty before age this time oh thank you that’s very kind um I think if we go on potential alone and not like but has he shown enough of
It Etc like if we think about training footage if we think about all that um I would make the argument that Brandon Petri maybe is the uh the 93 with the most potential and if all the stars align everything goes well I think I think he I think he could be not
Untouchable but extremely dominant to where it would be his his his his division to lose at competitions for for at least a handful of years um if we’re going off potential alone it’s a tough one Matt are you and and I’m gonna agree with you in terms of
Potential he’s potentially to be take the division over but we haven’t we don’t know it’s difficult to say Matt what do you think yeah I think if we’re judging on potential alone I would tend to agree I think he’s potentially has the highest ceiling um but I mean if we’re still
Talking about current king that’s Kao until otherwise changed yeah yep yep I’ve bet against him too many times and that guy’s got ice in his veins and so if he makes it back to Worlds and that’s an if you know I mean I mean that’s to be determined
Um yeah I’m I’m betting on him until until he’s beaten outright as opposed to being beaten you know no disrespect to chance Mitchell but when chance Mitchell beat him you know and I know that you’ve reh hatched that on the podcast there was a an issue there with communication
For kao’s final deadlift and the incorrect number went in and this that and the other thing you know and look chance could have changed his deadlift based on what Kao did and you know whatever we talk about that all the time but yeah until until Tao is is is beaten
Soundly at a World Championships or or just beaten you know I would I would I would bet on him but in terms of potential yeah I would say Petri yeah interesting interesting we’ll see um what do so you wouldn’t consider Sheffield a loss or what what do you
Mean if unless or do you think you need to see two consec two consecutive backto back and then you’re convinced well it’s well it’s a it’s a completely different event right Sheffield is a completely different event than worlds and so also if we if you notice the body weights
Gustaf weighed 92.7 kilos and kico weighed 92.6 five so um granted Gustav would have you know presumably would be pulling after Jonathan anyway but um look I I think it’s safe to assume that Kao would play his cards certainly a little bit differently at a World Championships um rather than the way
That he played his cars at this meet and so I think that that that has the potential I’m not saying that it would I’m just saying that it has the potential to unfold a little differently this competition incentivizes World Records it incentivizes risk-taking uh and those sorts of things and so um you
Know it could have unfolded differently that’s all I’m saying that’s that’s no shade or disrespect to gustoff I mean he put forth his signature per performance to date um you know but I just know that at a World Championships things just have a tendency to unfold differently because we’re looking at Lot number
We’re playing the lot number game we’re playing the chip game obviously with Jonathan of course has in the bench prast and we’re playing the um the bodyweight game and this championships Sheffield doesn’t play any of those it just plays percentage of the world record total so I think the the bullseye
Is slightly different at this meet than it is at a at a world that’s that’s all I’m saying but look I mean I think all of us would yearn for the day when we could see all of these Titans Clash at a single meet it’s unfortunate that you
Know you know at least on the US side we only get to send one um yeah that’s interesting what do you and Eric yeah you you already answered there with Petri uh interesting and you’re right this is slightly different the worlds and I kind of like it that’s a little bit different because
Then it shakes up results that might be repetitive whereas um it’s kind of it’s the same game but slightly changes it a little to make it interesting that uh but anyways let’s move on to delini Wallace Matt delini Wallace two-time world champion now two-time appearances at Sheffield and
Delany Wallace when the split came from usapl went the ipf route and two World titles established himself obviously he made the right decision he’s really pushed to the Forefront into the Limelight with events um the ipf world stream numbers fantastic Sheffield fantastic the last two years have been
Just Gang Busters for Delaney Wallace so he made the right decision however for the longest time despite being a two-time world champion there was the shadow of Russell or Russell is a massive figure in the game Icon in the game probably the greatest 83 we’ve seen just so dominant since
2019 and Russell or’s record is the one that Delany was chasing and what does this mean now for delini Wallace’s Legacy and how does this readjust how people now must talk about delini Wallace’s ipf Venture the US people are coming over and they weren’t around when Delaney did this but how that Delany
Wallace broke Russell or’s ipf world record traveling abroad ipf judging doing all of that how much does this change how people have to talk about Delaney Wallace I I think it’s huge and let me first and foremost jump to the front of the line and raise my hand and say I got
This completely wrong um and I told Delany as much after the competition when I went over and congratulated him um first of all I told him I said you’re a Sly Fox because you know a lot of us thought that you were you know significantly injured and I’m not saying
That he wasn’t he did he had a significant groin groin injury that I think is well documented but um him you know being koi and being uh you know playing playing his cards close to his chest on social media uh worked in his favor and I don’t think that any of us
Saw this coming I mean how how could we have unless you were part of delane’s really really tight Inner Circle you know where you know the nuts and bolts of his training because just none of us matter of factly saw any of it and so he
He used that to his advantage and I think once we saw when we looked up on the board there and saw the openers we’re like oh okay then um you know this is setting up for for the possibility of him um you know taking over Russell or’s
Um world record which to your point Ryan I think it is the literally the cherry on top of the Sunday for de Delaney unquestionably like you said he made the right decision in going over to powerlifting America that was that was a times sensitive decision he did the right thing and now
He’s you know undisputably a two-time world champion those titles you could never take away from him and now he’s placed third at Sheffield and and oh by the way his his Parting Shot is to take um you know Russell or’s record which I think you know a lot of people thought
You know I mean he came within an inch of it last year but then there were a lot of us you know myself included I had Delaney coming in dead last and so like I said I’m sitting here eating my Crow and taking it like a man because he he
Showed up and showed out I mean from a from an attempt uh standpoint you know Delaney averages 7.9 so he made eight attempts so he was bang on with his attempt selection I mean the only dead the only lift that he missed was his last deadlift and he’d already secured
The world record total so he was just trying to add a few more kilos at the end there but I think that this is just phenomenal for him and I think it makes a statement that says look you know I’m Delany Wallace I’m here I’ve been here
I’ve won two World Championships and oh by the way I’m not playing second fiddle to anybody and so um you know I assume Delany is Gonna Come on your podcast and I’ll let him tell his story he wants to tell yep already booked and so I don’t
Want to speak for Delaney in terms of his future plans and and and what’s next for him but um but yeah this was just a phenomenal performance man I mean he just executed like a Pro um his his lifts were on point and uh I’m just
Super I’m just thrilled for him I I don’t know what else to say but this is this is an incredible achievement because like you said you know looking at the 83s that we’ve had you know during this tenure since 2012 we now have a lot of people who have won two
You know we’ve got um we’ve got Brett Gibbs right we’ve got uh Russell wary and we’ve got Delaney Wallace and so when the conversation were to happen right now in terms of those greats I mean it’s man he’s he’s right there and rightfully so Eric how how do you feel about Delany
Wallace how he’s altered his legacy or at least how people talk about him um by breaking none other than Russell orhe ipf world record under the officiating overseas everything that goes with that and how does he stack up now with the other 883s of the world and if Russell
Comes over what does this mean now that Russell knows oh I have another 83 who’s totaling in the 840s and possibly heavier by the time he gets there well there’s an interesting cultural Dynamic here too because they’re both on team Flex right so they’re teammates and they were
Teammates who both had respect for each other because they took different routes and you know up until this point they’re both doing big things for for for team flex and for themselves they’re getting their own and you even hear Russell talk about like it’s good to see him do that
Yeah but it’s it’s almost kind of like a big brother talking about a younger brother in some of those conversations and I think you could easily have said um could just be a little bit mean and rude and unnecessary that Lany took the easy way out he didn’t want to face the
Biggest you know dog so he he got his easy World Championship um but there’s nothing easy about getting a world championship twice and all the things that you said under those conditions but to anyone who might have even had a hint of that perception I think he’s closed
The door on that narrative and now I think it’s going to be really interesting where you have Russ coming back to the ipf you’ve got Delaney having just broke his record and it’s not like Russ has put up a higher total in in like the 82.5 in the usapl he’s
Been flirting in the 90s you know and playing around going not not not to make light of it but so now he’s a legitimate Contender and I and I wonder how that relationship is going to change and what it’s going to be like when you have two athletes um who were previously like
Fist bumping across the the Federation Isles uh when now they are coming for the same food um and I so I’m interested in that I think it’s of course going to be very cordial and respectful uh because that’s just who Delaney is and they are still on the same team but I
Bet you that they are seeing each other differently now um and probably more so from R Russ’s perspective um I think I think now he understands that and maybe he’s even happy about having some kind of contender um which I think is going to be good so I’m curious about what
This brings out in Russ I think that’ll be very interesting and I can say um although it’ll be way better to hear it from Delany and I won’t say too much that um Delany is a 3dmj nutrition athlete he works with Alberto Nunes so someone in the Inner Circle and I I have
A feeling not many people thought that there there was a question mark for everybody even in the Inner Circle um cuz I I talked to Berto about it and he was like yeah that was kind of all came together last minute so good news you
Know um so yeah it’s it’s it’s cool how when you are that high level of an athlete and you have those motor patterns down so well that if you can just not fall back too far you can take a significant amount of time off of lifting heavy and kind of grease that
Groove as best you can and take the intelligent decision to not load heavy load that might exacerbate an injury just out of almost fear and go the pressure of Sheffield and really do the right thing and go listen like I don’t know if this is going to be successful
But it has a chance to make it worse let’s not do that and I think they made the right call um and I’m I’ll just say it that much um because obviously it really paid off and now he is he can legitimately claim that he is the best
83 right now and no one would be able to argue with the data um and it would just come down to all right we got to see a battle and um yeah I I’m excited for the future of the 83s I think it’s going to be very interesting how good does that
Probably feel two years he’s been waiting for this two years to silence those people yeah but yeah but for him to say yeah but what at the ipf World level I I hold the world record now and uh and and Russ can’t just come over
Here and have a bad day and win if you want to say Russ is the favorite that’s fine but now Russ to stirring together his lifts and Russ has to he can’t just win missing by and win by 20 kilos or more you have a bad day you lose that’s
That’s delane’s a legitimate threat um also adding to that Delany is actually I also got the vibe of the Big Brother little brother love it’s GNA be a little different now he’s you know little brother’s getting strong huh little brother’s got respect now you’re gonna put respect on his name Delan is also
Russ’s accountant um so if Russ ends up going away for tax evasion okay Delany can make things happen Delan has a lot of ways of getting Russ out of the way as well it’s not over yet um watch yourself man watch your numbers Playboy um so let’s let’s
Move it along here I’m gonna throw a question to you Eric pen geotus a reigning Champion coming into this event and by the fantasy league I was surprised but you gentleman were not you gentlem actually picking kyota to upset Penna and initially I was like wow
Is this just the kotl host here wilding out and then the Fantasy League picks came out and kyoda was the favorite and I was a little bit taken back because I hadn’t seen a lot on his bench press his deadlifts were like rep work with Paw
And I just was like I’m this is pretty bold this is pretty bold but it was it was a unanimous across theard thing this wasn’t just the kotl host this was the powerlifting Community it was an overwhelming kyota but pen was actually an underdog in the head-to-head coming into this with that
Despite the fact that Penna was the reigning world champion what does this do for penna’s reputation within a powerlifting Community what did we learn about Penna what did this add to penna’s Legacy for him to have faltered in the squats and this is so pen nothing comes easy
Underdog come from behind win in the 66s to Rally with a mega two he had that 270 opener deadlift and went all in on 190 PR on his second and essentially if he missed that on his second with a PR if he missed that he was
Done if he moved forward with just 270 on his total he was beyond done I don’t know what he would checked out on overall but damn near last if not last and certainly not beating kiyota and in True Pen of fashion he grinds out 290
And uh and kyota did not tighten up on those deficiencies that we had seen in in the rest of history and Penna not only defeated kyota again but ended up cracking into the top five which a lot of people probably did not see him doing and and top five when it’s Champions all
Around Legends All Around is is a fantastic I mean look at the names that he beat um yeah I know I carried on after the question so I’ll restate it but what do we learn about Penna what does this do for penna’s esteem within the community because he continuously is the
Underdog and what does this do for his legacy piece yeah it’s it’s it’s a mixed bag actually in my opinion while there was a very clear win in the battle of the 66’s um it was a was a bit of an ugly battle to be frank about it on on for
Both of the people involved and let me just State this very clearly I’m speaking as an analyst if you want to hear Eric Helms speak from his heart I was really pleased that pan won I always want him to do as well or better than he
Predicts for himself and I think he is a beautiful human and an amazing powerlifter and has probably more heart than than than than most people alive so um with that said I think they both underperformed compared to their potential um what they said they would do
And it it’s difficult to be like oh you know he was the underdog and he came out ah head because I don’t I don’t think that is how it felt to watch it to be honest um you know when when you’re talking about 7:30 and you total close
To the best you ever done but not quite there um on the day and you take some very risky moves miss a few and you have to take the risky move and it ends up turning out because the other competitor underperformed even more than what they were potentially capable of um it’s it’s
Not quite the the ideal story for you know Pana doing showing his debut at Sheffield but hats off like let that that’s one side of it that’s the much more pessimistic side of it the up side of though is he plays fifth at Sheffield
You know and and if if he had said like oh man I I I plan a total over 700 I’m going to bring the best version of myself um slightly different you know way things shook out the expectation would have been different so there there
There is a there is a bit of a cost to publicly having the kind of energy that that that he brings but I think it’s also part of who he is and and why he’s successful um he is the grind King you know and the downside of of having a
Highly specific training protocol and including primarily the main lifts and primarily at high proximities to failure and competing a lot everyone knows what Penna is capable of you know most of the time and when you know he does a touch and go bench and gets 180 and we don’t
Know what his body weight’s at and he you know puts together like this this kind of like if everything comes together I total 730 I I don’t know that lot of people took that seriously to be honest um it doesn’t mean that he can’t or won’t ever get there but I think the
The interesting story in the battle of the 66s was and and the reason why I chose kyota was because I know he brought on Kedrick so Kedrick Quan was working with him so I knew that coyota had identified you know my my lifts aren’t to standard I need some help I
Want to get assistance and he was doing things to rectify that and I can tell tell you as someone who has coached lifters from literally their first meet until all the way to retirement and also worked with some people for a brief period of time wasn’t able to get the
Opportunity to see them materialize on some of the things I would like to see change and then they move on and still struggle having been on both sides of that Spectrum I can tell you that is the the most important thing is the athletes intent to try to change something
Because they will typically eventually get there eventually but just because you make the the coaching change or the Strategic change or the Tactical change or the weight class change or whatever it is doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to materialize in your very next meet under pressure when you’re first
Trying new things or trying to adjust technique and it’s a tough thing when you know he has actually put up a total that is you know like I think he did 712 at Japanese Nationals or something like that over the world record he’s done that with what we know is relatively
Inconsistent not to standard performances so he’s got these ingrained rewarded behaviors like it’s tough to change technical aspects of lifts in very very high level lifters and there is a risk to it and there’s a cost and there’s a time lag and it doesn’t always
Go the way it should so to me I thought it was more it was less of a story of Pana um kind of outperforming the expectations and more of a story of kyota underperforming more than I I had even anticipated unfortunately and that’s not that’s not
A fun thing to say I don’t I don’t feel like that’s a nice thing to say to either kiyota or or Pana and these are both people I only want to see success for but that’s what watching that battle looked like to me and I think we saw someone
With a pretty established potential who’s steadily leveling up and I think pan is he’s not done by any means don’t get me wrong he’s incredibly resilient um underperforming a bit from where he’s capable and a good bit less than what he said he would and then we had someone
Who underperformed a lot compared to their potential uh someone who who probably could have totaled 720 730 if everything had gone well and they and they were able to correct some of those issues um so I think there’s actually a bigger story here and um I I think we’re
Going to see future clashes between these two and others um in this class Matt you you you look like you agreed with a lot of that what can H do to bring over 7:30 um is it possible maybe he maybe you feel as though now that that’s maybe
7:30 is too much and as well as kyota for them to level up and reach their potential so the training enters onto the platform yeah I think first of all what Eric said very aptly stated very eloquent I mean you you nailed it Eric I I wholeheartedly agree with everything
You said I think Penna brought exactly what I thought he would bring I had him finishing at 705 he finished at 702 and a half um he tied his PB in the bench press and he had five kilo PB to your point Ryan in the deadlift what I was a
Little bit I don’t know if I want to use the word surprised but he’s got a 247 and a half kilo PB in the squad and he opened on 240 so clearly if he thought that his training was projecting higher and he was projecting a much higher
Squat which I think it’s safe to assume that that’s what he was thinking and projecting and then maybe that’s what his training data had said then 240 may have been an appropriate opener but I thought that when I saw that number go up on the board I thought that was
Pretty darn heavy and clearly it came back to bite him because he only made the opening squat so if you’re asking my professional opinion in terms of what I think Penna would need to do it would be to change some of his attempt selection
And he and I had a little bit of a conversation afterwards and it it really wasn’t focused on that but it was just focused on this mutual respect and appreciation but I think what was also gleaned from it or what I gleaned from
It was like hey this is who I am this is how I express myself this is how I compete likewise he he tossed it back to me and he said that’s who you are you’re a coach that’s how you express yourself is through this you know what I mean and
So it’s like we can we can respectfully agree to disagree so um yeah I mean personally it I would try to convince him to change some of the attempt selection um clearly as Ryan said the heart’s there the drive is there the determination I don’t you know the guy
Is is a is a hard worker and so forth and then on the flip side if we’re looking at kyota you know I didn’t want to say anything on the podcast like Eric didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag because they had requested that we
Kind of keep that Hush Hush until until the meet but I was excited to see kyota align himself with Krick Quan you know who is quite established in the nutrition realm but now is also making quite a name for himself in the training realm as well not only working with
Kyota but working with uh um Emil crev and so forth and so anyway I think it is glaringly obvious to not only me but to all of us that kyota needs to make some significant technical changes he just needs to clean up the package um he needs what I like to call
A competitive polish and so the strength is there um but these these technical things need to change and much to Eric’s point and critic what he said is look this is the first training cycle that he and Kedrick have had together and there is a significant language barrier there
And so I you know um I don’t want to tell the entire story but I know that Kedrick has to work through an interpreter to get through the kyota and that is very difficult when when you’re translating terms like hinge and in Japanese that term translates to a hinge
On a door it doesn’t translate to a hip hinge and so forth so there’s a language barrier there yeah that needs to be overcome and so I think like Eric said you know uh these wrinkles don’t always get ironed out the first go or the first
Go around and so I think kyota has displayed an aptitude and an ability to Total much higher and yeah he he he clearly underperformed um below what I think we we all did in terms of the attempts that he made in terms of the technical standards we you know but once he
Cleans that up there’s there’s a lot more meat on the bone and so I would look forward to seeing him Clash obviously against Penna in the future and the the host of other 66s they’re going to be brought into the mix at World Championships so but that’s the
Story for me at 66 yeah and like and like also Eric said just add Pen’s got no apologies necessary to anybody the guy plays fifth ahead of a lot of people that we had picked a place higher so he’s he’s he’s laughing his way to the
Bank account right now so you know um so I have a couple comments on that but then I’m going to throw a question to the table for you guys to give me uh but it was interesting because kyoda literally you could see the bar slide
Down his back mid squat it starts in one position and finishes in another um yeah that’s going to be difficult to lock out I don’t know how this passing that at Worlds is going to be I think it’s going to be more difficult and as to your
Point that’s just how the squat which then also the squat looks very ugly because it comes up the bar is moving while he’s moving and whether he can lock that out or maintain his technical form on the way up it it looks awkward I don’t know what’s going to happen at
Worldse if he’s going to get that call or whatnot because pen a bombed with a low bar in in Euros so yeah he’s got to be careful it’s it’s toy with that could change an amazing prep and it all goes out the window if you go like one for in
Squats then you get to the deadlifts again super strong guy he hit lock his knees and I don’t know what’s going on and you could see it though on the stream and I could see he’s leaning back too far yep he doesn’t need to extend that much and when when you extend your
Back that much your knees almost must lock out in that Sumo position so I yeah it’s it’s hard you know I’m a coach and it’s like you you see it and you I want to run over to him and just take him into the training Hall
And and do some things on Squat and deadlift like immediately with him and bench brch press as well but I I really do think um and actually pen is great proof to it right you know Pana significantly changed his Squat and was able to come back from that um and I was
Really surprised that kyota didn’t actually miss another squat getting an up down command like he did on his opener because it looked the same I’m surprised he didn’t get the same call like there was that down stop and then go again as the bar shifted on his back
I thought oh he’s done for um and he he he got that I I mean I wasn’t physically there I was only watching on stream this year but um that’s what it looked like to me and the bench press was also writing a very fine line that didn’t go
His way and the deadlift like I said it’s it’s the um he’s leaning back far enough to where the knees are are going to unlock and I don’t think he needs to do that so it’s it’s fixable stuff is what I’m saying so um but like like to
Matt’s point you know um sometimes that iron is going to take a while to to get those wrinkles out yes yeah I mean to ER to yeah to to Eric’s point you know his second squat I mean there’s a perceivable noticeable difference between the the opener and
The third being kind of coupling those together they looked very similar with the third one the bar was literally falling down his back I mean but he’s got that pre preh hinge kind of unhinged pause and then he drops the second one to his credit he did correctly all his
One movement when he decided to break at the hips and go he went and he got it and we’re talking about I mean really and even Krick said the same thing he jumped from 215 kilos to 240 kilos I believe it was we’re talking about a 25 kilo swing there we’re talking about
Instead of him totaling 690 he’s totaling 665 and by far com mean in last place if that happens given how the rest of his day unfolded so there are some serious technical Corrections that need to take place there and like I think we all agree when he can iron out those
Wrinkles then you know he’s going to have a significant jump on his total but to your point Eric he has got to get that sorted out by Worlds because man you just yeah you don’t want to send those squads to a jury table at a World Championships no way no sir that’s not
Gonna end nicely it would be a shame if he doesn’t because if he can get everything together his his total will blow he’s so strong but his squat is Never Gonna Fly at Worlds and his deadlift will the exact same as Sheffield exact same with last worlds
Will be that it did not improve yet it doesn’t mean it can’t but he needs Kendrick’s got to find a really good translator to be like listen my friend do you understand what we can unlock with you if we could get this together and his popularity in in the region for
Powerlifting is huge what he could do for powerlifting in Japan is huge let’s hope let’s hope for the best for him and really quickly um talking about Penna I think the 730 had them extremely ambitious if he was to tighten up on a 10 selection on the day if he actually
Knew what he had on the day and instead of 240 and 22.5 he just went 250 if he because his his second attempt at 22.5 look like he might get it for a second almost fought through the sticking point if he nailed 250 that’s 10 more kilos on
His total that would have been the world record that would have been um instead of 72.5 would have been 72.5 and if you look at what’s winning Sheffield it’s 100% 78 Penna saying I am gonna win Sheffield wasn’t crazy Penna actually was right there in the hunt the problem
Is 7:30 happened almost could have been better for him if he never hit 730 got himself wound up saying I’m going for 730 and everyone around him in the AEP was like bro you got 7:30 if he was like we’re staying conservative at least for the second attempt and then we’ll go
Heavier on the third my God we might have all been talking different right now um what would have happened if we took Penna and said you’re getting handled by mik G today what would have happened are we talking the king of powerlifting what’s happening right now I think he’s
On he’d be on the podium yep he’d be on the podium God we don’t we don’t know you don’t know but I think if if you get someone who’s not emotionally attached to him it’s like very good Playboy I’ve seen all the videos I got you but guess
What we’re gonna do like because Mt G don’t give a [ __ ] I’m gonna tell you right now he don’t give a [ __ ] he’s gonna take that steering wheel and he’s gonna he’s gonna he’s gonna put the foot on the gas when he feels he needs and
Only as much as he needs and he’s going to go 20 over the speed limit and and not get that speeding ticket he’s not going to go over but um but to Pen’s point he’s a passionate guy and and I think like he’s such a charismatic guy
Too you’ll be around him and you’ll start believing as well you know that’s why you need a guy like mad who’s like don’t it doesn’t matter none of it matters who knows by the time worlds rolls around let’s see what happens because Penna pen is like is like kyota
Is like all of them now having said all that fine we threw it all out there let me throw you guys the question in the ipf who is the best 66 in the world today you’re up first this time Matt wow that’s really hard to say man I mean good Lord I mean
Look he’s the champ right so I mean you you have to give the champion their flowers because he’s the reigning champ and he is the reigning champ until June whatever the date is of this year and so someone has to come and knock him off
The off his perch so to speak as far as I’m concerned just like what I said about Kao and so all respect du to Penna and so forth um you know he doesn’t have the the the the sexiest total nor the biggest total that we’ve seen and so
Forth um but until that day until he is quote unquote dethroned he’s the man I mean because we’ve got a bunch of potentials or wh ifs on the powerlifting America side who are unproven at the international level so I think it would be premature for me to say oh so and so’s
Done x y and Zed over here under different standards and so forth if they can you know we’ll we’ll see it’s it’s to be determined but I think right now it’s him I mean he’s the reigning champ and I also was I I also chose those
Words carefully but it is in the ipf right now ipf level International level who’s made it that far that’s right Eric that’s he’s earned it what do you think yeah he’s earned it right he he had the year where everything did not go his way he made Corrections he came back he had
Very close to his heart emotional motivational reasons to do so and he leveled up and he won the world title and he won the battle attle just now and and even if like you win you win ugly doesn’t matter he won like right everything I said that was maybe not the
Most favorable to kyota and Penna Penna still won so that there was two 66s invited to Sheffield Penna was the higher higher one and he is the world champion he’s earned it so um it would be in my opinion disrespectful um and and just prematurely inaccurate to say
Anything else so I completely agree with MC it doesn’t mean that I think he’s a heavy heavy heavy favorite undeniable World Champ again in the 66s for worlds I think he is in a very contentious position um but he’s still top of the pile period well first off I agree with both
You gentlemen I think um win wi ugly still won and the guy he won against in direct head-to-head competition six sixes I think is a w i mean he’s bro unofficially broken the world record at Japanese Nationals is phenomenal lifter so the quality of opposition which he faced head-to-head at Sheffield was
Phenomenal and he still came out on top so it’s got to be him let’s see what happens at Worlds he’s forever vulnerable which makes him he’s the your makes your heart bleed every time he hits there and it’s always entertaining and he grinds and it’s it’s part of it
It’s all part of the Allure in and uh the romance that is uh penot let’s move on to the 74s and Eric you’re half kiwi uh or or whatever the situation is over there I won’t ping you down and label you you don’t like it when I label you
But um Tim manag Gotti won and the community said they pick him to un to upset reigning world champion um Carl Johansson tell me your thoughts on the performance your thoughts on the battle and why do you think the community thought he was going to do this because of the deadlift
Video honestly like it really I think it really came down to him deadlifting something that was 10 kilos more than anyone anticipated that he would be doing and just going whoa okay so there’s Reserve there um that’s why why I picked him and uh yeah I mean it it
Wasn’t as dominant on the day as it was on Instagram it often but I mean still man it’s pretty big deadlift right so I you know the really interesting story that I think is just Kell beckin sitting back and going yeah yeah I still got you you know um so I am actually
Very very very excited for the uh the 74s at world I cannot wait to watch that but to to answer your question very directly I think it really did come down to what happened on Instagram you know I think I think Tim monatti uh you know putting up some big numbers online was
Like whoa because I mean they were pretty close at Worlds you know and um the only I could see the counterargument though like you got young guy on on the Apex trajectory uh with with C you know coming up um you’d think lots of room to
Grow you know and he’s just you know he’s young right and then you got Tim cutting down from the 883s which more often than not is going to kind of cap you at where you’re at or close to it and it’s going to give you a more defined range of what your capabilities
Are um and then he kind of broke that narrative by by showing that massive deadlift on Instagram I I think that was basically I I would be really interested if he just had decided not to share that that Instagram video what the polling would have been and what did you learn
From the actual Clash itself when they clashed a cheffield well I I learned that I at least picked one battle right I mean that wasn’t I mean you saw my picks am I still the expert analyst based upon we we almost didn’t book you for this I’m gonna be honest after the Rory
Dropped out you had to have someone else besides I cut Rory Al together can I be honest he could make he could make the show I was like Rory I seen your picks and good God we got to shake up the podcast a little um but yeah what do you
Think was it did it unfold the way you thought it would um do you think now that Tim beat Carl he’ll Pro he’ll progress at a more rapid rate and we should anticipate he he retains the lead um what are your thoughts on this I’ll get it I’ll get Matt’s thoughts as well
But what do you think what what do you glean from this yeah I was really impressed with the squat um you know the uh he he gained a good lead there I think his bench press is this this this is out of all the lifts if there’s kind of deciding to
Kind of cap things although I got to say we’ll find out proves this not to be the rule in all cases um when you cut a weight class like your your your bench press is it it may be like just I’m protesting no one’s going to cross this line here’s the picket you
Know your your bench is forever H held stagnant that’s something I’ve seen a lot I really hope that’s not the case I hope we can move this bench up but Tim’s pretty lean you know um and uh and certainly I don’t want to sound doomy and gloomy on the bench so it went
Pretty much the way I expected and then he did what he needed to do on the deadlift so and and won that little battle chipped the the deadlift right before it so played the game right came out ahead and um the lead he had on on
Squat was enough to make up for the fact that he was behind on bench um yeah I I was surprised that CI didn’t do better I I was expecting a little more out of out of out of C that that was kind of the main thing I took took
From from the Battle of 74s there um so yeah I I don’t know I it’s it’s hard it’s hard to say I I don’t have enough information about the trajectory of his training uh and how well that went compared to what the expectations were
Um and I I wasn’t there to to get near Joey because you know Joey hang out from five minutes I’ll tell you everything but uh just would have you know unfortunately I didn’t have that uh that on-site backstage privilege so yeah hopefully next year buddy Matt what do
You think yeah I agree with what Eric said um I I think Tim quite frankly overperformed um I had I had Carl finishing ahead of him um but the the the chel backin factor cannot be overstated I mean he that that loomed large I mean he shifted things you know
Totaling 800 at Euros bumping up the world record not just barely but by 10 kilos and saying I’m here and him kind of waiting in the wings there as that first alternate uh chel and I had a very funny conversation the the night before the Championships he said where would
You put me if if we had a last minute you know Dropout he goes where would you rank me and I said well quite frankly I don’t think I’ve seen enough of your training but suffices to say with with chel 800 and both Carl and Tim talking
On podcasts and claiming that they were going to total 820s 830s I thought that was a bit unrealistic um just looking at Carl’s training and the amount that he has gained on his total from competition to competition has been incredible he’s had about a 3% jump in
Total if you look at his past two to3 meets and so I took what he totaled at Worlds and added 3% to that I said well why not and so that put me at at at him totaling about 802 and a half is what I had Carl projected at and and clearly
You know he he he he didn’t hit that Mark he hit 785 and a half and I think also for Carl most notably is this guy he’s a guy who averages 8.4 attempts out of nine and he only and he only came up with seven and so that you know it
Doesn’t sound like much but that is significant that’s an attempt and a half that he didn’t wasn’t able to gain and so for that reason I think that he underperformed and to Eric’s point I think Tim overperformed you know he was right on par with attempts he makes
About an average of 6.9 and he made seven so he was right there on his attempts um I had Tim totaling a little less but that deadlift you know it it it you know just like that scene in Gladiator where the guy says win the
Crowd I mean he uh he clearly won the crowd in the favor you know based on what he did on social media I think it was a 345 that he pulled Eric and it was you know and it looked and it looked comfortable now who knows you know if he
Squatted in bench before that and was he on body weight that day and this that the other but anyway that that swayed the crowd but overall um to Eric’s point I think it’ll be exciting to see both of these guys coming back and it’s really gonna shape
Up when you throw Chell back in the mix you know for a really interesting battle there um in Lithuania so I’m excited to see it okay so another round table question I’m glad you mentioned shell both you gentlemen we’ll start with Eric who is the best 74 in the
Ipf in the ipf perck is not in the ipf yet so I’m not allowed to say Perkins no all right that’s too easy um you know I it’s difficult with the conversation we so this this one is not as clear right still in this by the way
You’re allowed to say would because yeah yeah and this one’s far less clear because there was a three-way death match that happened at Worlds you know a difference in body weight and the the slipping of the who I picked as the greatest of all time um you know what I’m saying so um
The potential of U of of of of Taylor just getting his stuff together and going you guys are playing around in numbers that start with seven get out of here is is still there and and even to Kell like oh well welcome to being good like you
You’ve you’ve hit 800 you know when you get another 30 kilos come talk you know like so that is that is looming and I don’t I don’t know you know where Taylor’s at and and how he’s feeling he was there he was commentating he did a
Great job you on some of the interviews and stuff like that I I I I I need to I need to look in Taylor’s eyes because I need to see like does he feel like he has unfinished business you know things things have changed in his life he’s got
A kid um you know and and he he’s he has been at at at the peak arguably in some ways but if he feels like he has unfinished business and he finds a way game over you know what I’m saying so um right now because of that Changing of
The Guard because of Tim just placing higher than Carl and because Kell just total 800 I am going to feel comfortable being inconsistent and not saying it’s the world champion you got to knock him out because it’s a different scenario than it was with P who also won Sheffield
After winning worlds and I’m gonna say Kell right now I think in the ipf showing is currently comp competing just having total 800 setting the new world record and not having enough information about about uh Taylor I I want to say Taylor but I just don’t know enough I
Would say Taylor If he if he is if he has it together now if Taylor is is still on on kind of the upswing coming back from things then it is um you know to be continued potentially Taylor obviously Taylor if he’s there but if he’s not then it’s Kell I I say
Something you had me in the first half play booy I thought you you know how you played the old switch AO bait and switch baby you you did the bait and switch you deed me if this was the Super Bowl you would have undressed me right on the
Field and got by me and uh and that would have been on every highlight reel of every sport show Matt same question sir who is the number one 74 in the ipf right now well it’s yeah I mean I look I have the exact same answer is Eric I
Mean the the answer just full stop is Taylor Atwood if if he’s committed if he’s healthy if he’s going to compete at 74 but all these are questions that are to be determined so just based on recency bias and what has happened most recently and the data points that we can draw
From most recently is Chell So my answer that’s a long way of saying that my answer is the same way as Eric’s it’s it’s the same answer so look one of these guys is you know to be determined in three four weeks here we’ve got powerlifting American Nationals and
We’re gonna see what happens there and and and what that prod Taylor’s not going to be competing there right right that probably helps your guys decision on shell because he’s not as sheeld I did not see that so so the roster We’re Not Gonna yeah I mean I
Know Ryan doesn’t want to turn this into a powerlifting America preview show we’re not We’re not gonna do that right right um we’re gonna we’re focusing on Sheffield and the lifters here but yes to your point Ryan the roster closed yesterday Taylor’s name was not on it
And so that leaves Austin Perkins and so assuming Austin does what he needs to do then he will come to the ipf and he will lock horns with these other three guys and so it just means that those four are the top four presumably we haven’t seen the rest of the
Roster one of them is getting bumped off the podium I mean that’s just how it is you right to go to World Games one of them is is gonna come forth or you know and that’s no disrespect to the other 74s may may may maybe somebody else
Comes in third or fourth or second or whatever but all I’m saying is is if we’re talking about those four one guy’s getting left out so if I can answer my question right that’s going to be good and if I can answer my own question I
Think shell is the guy to beat um and I loved the Matt you were there at the banquet at Sheffield for I I kid you not like two hours shell and Taylor were talking like two old war Hors two old rivals and they were off to the side
Like for anyone listening if you don’t know shell and and Taylor were Rivals beat each other trash talk trash talked on podcast I remember shell being on the podcast being like you better bring your best blah you’re a champ but you won when I wasn’t there last last time we
Were at IP for worlds together I beat you Taylor’s like um I’m coming I’m getting my revenge they finally Clash into their rivalry stretched from 2017 to when shn to 2018 when Taylor when shell wasn’t there to 2019 when they clashed once again um and finally the
Rematch and then Taylor then beating his Nemesis and one best lifter of World Championships became pound-for-pound the best in 2019 and then he fully blew it all away in 2021 and now that shell is back it’s kind of funny because Taylor doesn’t seem the same and for some
People who wonder will you see your Rivals the same in years to come because right now feels contentious no those two guys were arm in-arm you couldn’t separate them and I took pictures with them and I’m like I’m tripping out what year is it is it 2018 what year is it
Right now let me take a picture of you guys together and I’m like take a picture of like two boxers face to face and Taylor and Sh looked at each other like not a chance not a chance they’re like this is my homie now and now when Taylor sees shell coming back from
Injury and Taylor’s facing injury he doesn’t look at sh like a rival he looks at sh like inspiration like he did it I could do it and when he says sees sh out totaling these Young Guns in the ipf he’s like that’s a guy for my generation
Coming back and doing what I want to do and representing the Old Guard so it’s uh your feelings change on your Rivals I’m telling you the older you get the more you know this and then eventually you’re going to have a re reunion at one of these events be like man can you
Believe at one point we were at odds with each other and now time passes we couldn’t care less anyways I took pictures with those guys together and I’ll post them at some point but it was amazing seeing them together but yeah I’ll let go those sentiments moving
Along to anatol Nova pman anatol came into this event injured and at one point as the openers came out Pete spent goes to me those are not injured openers numbers and I ran down to the warm-up room found Anatoli and Gustaf hlin speaks Russian and Gustaf hadlin and Anatoli are really
The only two lifters that talk to each other like that talk to anat anyways and um I said can you ask him is he injured Gustaf asked and and toally said oh yeah it’s a back injury and it’s real and I said your opening weights on all your
Lifts are not injured openers that’s what I would expect if you’re going for the world record and essentially gave something to the point of we’re just going to lay it out on the platform or whatever it’s going to happen it’s gonna happen and in terms of like how you want
Your guys to go out your stars to go out you don’t want someone coming in I’m injured I can’t perform I’m just going to do token lifts because God knows if I’m going to make it back in time make it back for next year Ashton’s coming
Etc this is my one shot possibly at Sheffield I don’t know that’ll be a question for afterwards but let me just enjoy this and I wouldn’t even fully blame the person who did that because I probably would but anat toi built a little different huh load the bar up
Broke the squat world record and came within his last deadlift paced right until his last deadlift when finally his back injury was like that was the last one and he missed his last deadlift that would actually have broken his own total world record um so he came super close Matt what are your
Thoughts on the Anatolia performance and uh what it what it means for himself to have battled back and and what were your takeaways yeah once again happy to raise my hand and say I got this completely wrong um clearly to your point Ryan he was injured he was ding that wasn’t a
Lie um but the fact that he came in with a bad back and was still able to load up for a squat world record is just mindblowing you know and I think if anybody who’s been following Anatoli we kind of know what he looks like under load you know he’s got that
Quintessential Shake about him you know where he shakes a lot when he walks his squats out and everybody’s always like oh my God dear Lord I hope he gets this you know but he hit the he hit the third squat the world record squat and that
Was nice to see I was a little bit surprised but but understanding that he didn’t go for a bench world record um you know I I would have thought hey of all the records coming in with a back injury you know the bench is the one that maybe he takes a shot at
Interestingly enough he didn’t take a shot at it he went for 230 on his final attempt which was only uh two and a half kilos up from his second and he missed it but to your point Ryan I mean he loaded up the 350 kilos on that final
One which would which would have given him a 94.5 total so the fact that he comes in with a significant back injury you know we didn’t we didn’t know you know based on his performance at Euros we knew something was off and and because he didn’t show anything on social media we
Were all left guessing you know and so on our preview podcast we were left wondering and I had he and Delaney because of those reasons because we thought that they were significantly injured coming in you know at the bottom and the fact that he totaled 98.4 five%
Of the world record with a back injury is extraordinary and I think it just lends respect on his name that like you said Ryan he’s just built different and if you know anything about ukrainians they’re just workmanlike and it’s just this blinders on mentality and it’s just
You know not a lot of uh raw emotion you know and they just they just come about it and and and punch the clock and and and that’s what Anatoli did and so I think my admiration for him and respect only grew you know by virtue of the fact
That he came in less than himself and still put it on the line and competed like he did you know making seven out of nine and coming really close to just chip in his world record total so I look my hope and fervent prayer is that this
Guy is Full Throttle and 100% by Lithuania because I think we all want to see what could be coming you know which is that Clash presumably between he and and uh potentially Austin or I’m sorry Ashton so Eric what are your thoughts on Anatoli can he push back the charge of Ashton or
Is Ashton just too far away and ahead um obviously this performance he was injured conceivably by Lithuania he could be back up to full form and maybe even surpass that will it be enough yeah this um I got this the least wrong out of all of us and that’s the
Most I can qualify it I can’t I can’t really Pat myself on the back because I had uh both Delaney and anat coming in at the same like equal to their their kind of normal normal performance and I placed them um at I think 9:40 and um
And I think 8:37 and saw where they shook out and I anat told showed enough that I knew he was taking the strategy that I didn’t quite know that Delaney was and but I had some Insider you know background information that he was like Hey we’re
Going to do what we can but not push too far but anat actually showed that and I thought that was the right move he he had some some videos of him I want to say deadlifting and squatting in the 240 250 range right and let’s face it if you got a real
Injury you can’t squat 250 or 350 right so the fact that he could do some you know like power work volume work light load light right i’ like heaviest Squad ever done in my whole life is 227 so um the fact that he is doing moderate loads I was like you know
What that that means that he could put on a heavy lift it wouldn’t be smart it wouldn’t be ideal but you throw a taper in there and you make the decision to deal with whatever comes of that after the competition which is what you do on
A Sheffield um when you are are getting thousands of of pounds which he did get he got a squat world record and he placement of the pack he got some money um I don’t think he regrets his decision I mean I don’t know maybe maybe he’s
Like in a Stretcher right now but I really hope he’s not but I have I have um kind of the same view that Matt has uh on on the performance and I wasn’t surprised by it I I thought he would be able to put something together just by
The mere fact that he was showing videos of him in the mid2 200s on Squat and deadlift but I was surprised by his bench because I actually had him listed as because I mean he went for it at Euros right um so so anyway um Lithuania is how how long we got we
Got you know like three four four months yeah it’s in mid June mid June if he was able to to make this kind of Turn Around from Euros to Sheffield yep as long as Sheffield I I mean you guys saw him at the Afterparty was he he was okay was he
In a wheelchair okay good no he good there you go so uh I mean that might have just been vodka and Hart but you know which which is the equivalent of shoelace and bubble gum in the Ukraine but um I I would predict that because I I’ve
Talked about this before where Anatoli I think has not really been pushed by other people um for a while and he is going to get that when Ashton comes over but I don’t think we’ve seen the PE capabilities of of Anatoli and I think um they’re both Fierce competitors and I
I think it’ll be I think it absolutely will be a dog fight I don’t think either one of them is going to be able to walk away or or stomp on the other by any means I think it’s going to be very close between the two of them and I’m
Actually quite excited for that that Showdown he’s got enough time to be healthy let’s put it that way moving on to Jesus sales uh Matt it was a bit of an uneven performance early on in the squats sensation uh took the Ray Williams ipf world record and
Squatted over a th000 pounds both in his second and his third attempt looked like he was right on Pace to hit those ambitious goals and his ambitious goals to remind everybody was him taking the world record untested in WPS which is phenomenal Ranch came around um it
Looked like he jumped with command then I heard he actually dinged one of the uprights and it was just a little untidy and he ended up getting himself into some trouble also in the deadlifts and having to go all in for the poll to win
It all and we could talk about this I actually as purely in the moment was happy to see he went all in they had decisions they could go for deadlift world record they could go for don’t go all into to win at all they they had
Some options for the final poll and in the moment they decided you know what we’re pulling for it all we’re pulling for it all and uh the moment I was completely fine with that go out on your Shield the world title is not on the
Line or not you have nothing to lose put on a show and he’s hit over 420 in training not 429 but he probably didn’t you know squat what he squatted and do everything he did early that day but still it’s Sheffield and the adrenaline was high
But Matt what do you think with how it happened once the wheels started falling off and he fell behind he was almost forced to start taking ambiti attempts if he’s going to catch up and then he really got behind it yeah so let’s back up to just an
Earlier part of this podcast and I just want to ask you a question before I answer because I’ll give a pretty thorough response are you privy to any inside information that I’m not in other words was did did he get hurt did he dings did he tweak something like I
Didn’t I didn’t really talk to Jesus afterwards I I wanted to I I I wanted to talk to him to obviously congratulate him on the world record Squad you know Ray is my guy Ray is my lifter but I wanted to you know to be sincere in that
And and congratulate him but I just I I didn’t our paths really didn’t cross at the banquet so anyway I will do my due diligence at powerlifting American Nationals but anyway was there something going on there that I didn’t know about he said nothing about injuries if he did
If he was injured he didn’t he didn’t bring it forth when I was talking him yeah I have some information I don’t know if you guys have heard of iron culture you guys have uh both both been on there um twice but I literally I recorded the Sheffield recap iron culture episode
With Omar and if you don’t know um and these are really good commercials uh so they’re amazing but Jesus is a rascal athlete and he has done some amazing work with Rascal so he does he does talk to Omar and Omar shared some things and
I um I don’t want to scoop my own podcast but the bench press situation I don’t want to jump line here but do do do we want to get this out on the table this is shared information yeah yeah please please honestly I think to be to be fair
It’s gonna affect my commentary a little bit I mean I’m still GNA comment on what I think should have happened right from a from a strategical standpoint because I think I think there were some significant mistakes that were made and I think you know so anyway but please go
Ahead so yeah I I I know the the Matt Gary um codex you know I’ve studied it well and and Thou shalt not make more than a 10 kilo jump on bench press without very very good reason is is one of those um but uh According To Jesus um
He feels As I understood it from what Omar explained that he only has so many big benches in him and he feels that if he is to make those smaller jumps when he’s already starting in you know that mid 500 PB kind of bench range that he cuts his top end off
So the decision to jump 20 um was an individualized decision that I I I know like you know I looked at it as a coach as well like that’s a even if you’re benching 600 pounds that’s a really big jump um and it’s risky because um when you’re benching that much it’s like
Missing your second attempt on squat not your second attempt on bench right so so that was the the rationale as I understand it and then there was the unfortunate rack command jump so there no injury fortunately I don’t I I think I think he’s um unless that’s you know
Just information he didn’t share with Omar either but it sounded like it was more of a a personalized tactical decision um there which yeah did like you said Ryan force him into where he went with the deadlift but I’ll leave it there obviously you know Matt’s commentary would be good to hear but
That that’s kind of just now we all have the same information yeah I mean I look I appreciate you saying that and that that that adds some context and some some color to the conversation um look he he nailed the squat I thought those attempts were were bang on um yeah squat
World record I think all of us probably projected him a little bit higher or at least thought the ability was there to squat a little bit more I mean I thought look he’s probably gonna go for 480 or something but hey 478 is just as good of
A world record as 480 in terms of you know what I mean it really at at at that body weight and with those kind of kilos you know it really probably doesn’t matter if you chip it or if you beat it by two and a half so
The squat looked good um his third squat I thought looked in terms of effort about like his last one looked at Sheffield last year so if you go ahead and look kind of compare those two videos um they were both not the most beautiful looking squats that I’ve seen
Him do he had to kind of fight for them you know they were fast because a lot of his squats kind of move that way anyway um so I do think that he had a little bit more in the tank but I think it was a good call and congratulations to him
For getting the world record um I want to go back to something that I’ve mentioned on some previous podcasts and Eric you you mentioned it as well and everybody knows I’ve collected a metric ton of data on this stuff and so it really um holding weights in your hands
Feel much differently than they do when they’re on your back or when they’re out in front of you on a deadlift and so like Eric said the the data say that when you jump more than 10 kilos in a bench press even at that strength level things don’t end well and so I
Understand what he’s saying that he feels like it cuts off his top end but I’ll give you an example going all the way back to 2014 ipf classic worlds in postom South Africa I coached Ray Williams and I also coached my lifter that I was writing training for an
American Matt Balor and Matt was going for the world record in the bench press and the now bench press god of the super Heavies that we all know and I’m going to mispronounce his name Ryan but it’s it’s ilas bulim from Algeria is that correct or close enough I think so right
So he he right so in South Africa we were competing against him and IID scouted him and he opened at 240 and he jumped to 260 so a 20 kilo jump just like um just like Jesus did at this meet going from 255 to 275 and I walked over
To my lifter and I said congratulations and he goes what do you mean and I said because you’re going to set the world record record and get gold in the bench and he’s like what are you talking about I said just trust me my friend anyway as
The Story Goes ilas went out and of course Miss missed 260 twice now to to Jesus’s credit if we go back and we were watch the live stream I believe if I’m not mistaken Ryan he missed the first attempt to 275 on strength so the bar he
Did not finish that lift am I right there he flat out so go ahead right I don’t know if it was a Mis group strength or what it was he he was he could he but but lock it out within that attempt he did not lock it out right
Right the right the point is is that he didn’t lock it out so the 20 kilo jump It’s not that seus solaras is not strong enough that’s not the question what it is is taking a jump of that magnitude at that intensity level is a shock to the
Nervous system I don’t care what anybody says it’s literally and figuratively like jumping into a pool of cold water and you get this jolt on your body and your system your organism whatever analogy you want to use and that’s what happened and then he comes back on the
Third one hits the weight because his body is then acclimated to it right and then beat the rack command and misses it on a technicality so at that point to your point Ryan he is then falling behind where I think we all projected him you know he said I think that he hit
280 kilos in the gym I actually had him finishing with a 275 kilo bench breast I just thought the way that he would get there would be a little bit different and a little bit more pragmatic right and so I understand what he’s saying about he loses at the top end but you
Know now if we kind of fast forward presumably to what’s going to happen at Worlds we’re gonna have to tighten up some of those attempts at Worlds because you’re in an eight-person flight but we’re not talking about worlds we’re talking about Sheffield then he misses the opening deadlift 380 and that was
That was uh how did he miss that again if I’m not did he um he rocked back on his heels and then dropped it because he it was bizarre because I didn’t see him ever do that before but yeah right it look like a freak thing exactly so it’s
Kind of this one-off situation right and it’s it’s not the same oneoff as we experiened last year where Jesus clearly dropped his first deadlift he set the he he let go of the bar but they didn’t call him on it right and I have said many times that if I had been coaching
Him and and he had gotten redlighted for that I’d said hey man we’re going up anyway because you ain’t gonna do that twice and the same meat but this time I think they made a good call in repeating that weight and then there is only one man in the
Building who can sit there and wait and look at the scoreboard and say h what do I need to overtake first place because everybody else is done with their meat okay and I’m looking at that and he jumped 49 kilos right from 380 right 108 pounds and I think once again and
I’ve said it on this podcast before I Think Jesus solarz probably has the strength in the hips and the back to stand up in the deadlift with probably 435 to 440 assuming that he’s fresh assuming that he hasn’t squatted first assuming that he hasn’t benched first and assuming that he hasn’t traveled but
We factor in all of those things now and we’re asking a man to pull 429 which is a number well beyond what he’s ever done in comp we’re asking him to do it to comp standard and it is the ultimate YOLO and I get it okay I hear what
Everybody’s saying this is the meat to do it at right go ahead push all your chips into the center of the table I get that but and there is respect that comes along with being willing to take that chance however I don’t give as much respect when it’s borderline of Del delusional
Attempt and I’m not saying delusional from the standpoint of strength I’m saying it’s borderline delusional based on what had transpired that day and what he had shown okay and based on the circumstances that was a 11,327 Miss okay and so I’ve run the math he was going for all the marbles
What he could have done was taken 4105 which would have been a world record there’s the 5,000 pounds there I believe and then would have placed him in fifth so it would have knocked P out of Fifth and would have put him in fifth place and then he gets the Payday for
Being in fifth place as well so hey man look presumably that’s a decision that he and Joseph had made prior to the competition you know I mean and during I know the game planning sessions that I have with my lifters I try to uncover every Stone and turn over every scenario
And um you know I don’t think any of us envisioned that his day would unfold in this way so sometimes scenarios can unfold that you don’t plan for or that you don’t have a script for and and he’s his own man and he gets to call the shot
Ultimately and if there’s a meat to do it this is the meat to do it I just probably would have encouraged him to take a smaller attempt and said hey man let’s get a world record in the deadlift and let’s jump into the fifth place as
Opposed to we are doing the YOLO of all YOLO just to get into first and oh by the way if you miss which there’s a high probability that you’re gonna miss right I mean the bar didn’t even come up to to his knees right so it was it wasn’t like
He missed on grip I mean this particular attempt didn’t even clear his knees right so I mean it’s not I don’t want to sit here and say oh I told you so you know what I mean but it’s it’s one of those things where this was just an
Ultimate YOLO and it didn’t turn out in his favor so I mean it’s it’s a it’s a costly mistake but having one Sheffield last year and all the accoutrements and all the glory and all the fame and everything that comes along with it look I don’t think it does anything to
Tarnish his his record I don’t think it does anything to tarnish his abilities I think clearly he showed an aptitude and training to I mean I had him totaling about 1180 so this is a major major underperformance it is a I mean if you want to characterize it as a
Disappointment it’s a disappoint I mean but I don’t I don’t think any of us saw this coming and personally as a coach I would have advised him to go in a different way but ultimately at a competition like this where World titles aren’t on the line this that and the
Other you know it is the place to take chances and be a little riskier but I just thought the attempt selection left a lot to be desired yeah and we’ve come and we’ve come to a place in the sport Ryan I think you and I were talking about this
Too right if we’re going to give people their flowers and and rightfully so we’re also at a place now because this has become a true sport where competitors need to be able to answer for for their misses just like they you know get praised for their makes and the
Same thing with coaches I’m a coach and I need to be held accountable and I need to be questioned on the on the decisions that I make when they don’t come out in my lifter’s favor you know and I need to own those and take responsibility for
Those and step up to the plate and answer those tough questions so I would just kind of pait those questions and look I’m sure you’re going to have him on the podcast at some point maybe Joseph too and and they can they can speak to it and you know and and help
Settle this but I’m just telling you what I’ve gleaned and and that’s from just being there with boots on the ground and then of course reviewing the score she’d have the fact and kind of looking at the numbers so and when you when you say the money he missed all
Right well maybe that’s 11,000,000 that was a costly that was a costly mistake and that’s no pun intended literally and and to be fair there is no guarantee that he would have done the 41.5 I mean that would have been a 20 that would have been a 20 kilo jump right but
That’s way more in his wheelhouse those are the type of jumps that he has used to taking in the deadlift you know that 20ish 20 to 25 kilo jump is is customary with his strength ability but to throw a 49 kilo jump on there you know is is not
Only just an additional jolt to your nervous system that’s already been jolted you know from the previous attempts that you’ve taken you know to now to the point where it’s like my God I mean it’s just yeah it’s very unlikely the 41.5 there would have been a much higher probability of making that
Attempt you know satisfying the standard getting a world record and oh by the way now I’m in fifth place and we’re talking about wow he came from you know 11th to fifth as opposed to he stuck down 11th Eric what do you think Buddy and by the
Way um yeah I stand by what we were saying how people need to allow analyst to analyze without getting too emotional about it because I know the respect you have are Jesus Laris and I know or Penna and everyone loves all these guys but you have to be able to on
These shows I listen to MMA and boxing podcast all the time and they have to be able to be analysts and we’re so tight that um were’re friends but people take it like almost personal if you don’t pick them to win or if you critique a
Performance like man I have to do this otherwise fans of the sport don’t have the opportunity to hear like other sports do whether actual analysts our fans of our sport need to hear actual analysts and we got to remove feelings sometimes and I think you guys Eric HS
And Matt Gary nobody calls either of you disrespectful or say that you’re don’t handle yourself with Integrity who has ever said that about Eric HMS and Matt Gary so no need to go there but I like a 100% double down on that’s why I bring you guys on because I know you’re gonna
Shoot from the hip and call on his shots um anyways sorry Eric go ahead sir I see it mostly the same as Matt and ultimately when the chips are down I would have advised to 41.5 and I’m not sure I would have been confident like Matt said um I think he
Meant to say 30 Kil a 30.5 kilo jump 3 that’s right 30.5 sorry yes still big you know jump yeah um so so if you guys recall from the preview episode I I had him taking 478 as a squat and Matt was like hey but if you’re going to do it
Anywhere you know you go for that 500 here and I was like he he doesn’t need it to win and it’s a record it’s risky you know so that actually went the way I thought it would and that’s why I was a little surprised by the decision on the deadlift um
But at the same time just to put some respect on his name you know like he had the day he had and he told 1113 just to put that in perspective and all du respect the highest total of anyone below him but after that in ipf
Is 112.5 on Roy’s sorry Ray’s best day so it’s kind of mindboggling when you think about what Jesus is capable of from a strength perspective and we we watched him deadlift and we said on this preview show that his was it 426 yep that actually like I think I was the one
Who thought I don’t know maybe his shoulders aren’t back you know and everyone else thought it was legal lift so 429 I don’t know if I would go quite as far as you Matt respectfully to say it was delusional for the day um as his squat looked good and bench just seemed
Like it was a whoopsie you know you know he he made he made an attempt call that was like you said a shock to the nervous system and then correct it and jumped to Rack command so I I don’t know that there was data to say that he wasn’t
Strong that day so I I don’t think it’s unreasonable from someone who is the inaugural Sheffield champion and if he got that deadlift it wouldn’t just be that but also be historically totaling more than the raw wrapped total like it’s it would mean a lot you know but it
Would also mean a lot to get a deadlift world record so and and looking at the money I I would be of two minds I would I would I wouldn’t I wouldn’t have pushed back if I was his coach if I said 410 and a half and he was like let me go
429 I can win this I can be have another historic win defend my Sheffield title I that’s just three kilos less than I’ve done cleaner than than the deadlift that they passed on the overturn last year you know like it’s it’s it’s not I I I
Personally like I said it’s it’s F it’s a matter of degrees not not difference of opinion with Matt I think I I didn’t I don’t quite see it as as delusional but I I also would have recommended 410 and a half but I fully understand 429 I fully fully do um
And I I didn’t think he was going to I wasn’t like a he’s gonna miss that it was like oh [ __ ] can he do it this would be incredible it sucks that he’s in that position so I fully fully get it um and uh yeah it’s it’s crazy when you’re
Dealing with those heavy of Weights how much you lose from missing and it’s also crazy to me that it’s still heavier than the biggest total Ray Williams has ever put up by 0 five when he’s just kind of like really had Things Fall Apart on him
To give you the idea of the strength potential of this man it is truly shocking when you really think about it yeah and I just why you were saying that Eric I just want to add one thing Ryan wh while you were saying that Ryan or Eric I just ran some additional numbers
And so had he taken perhaps a more customary attempt selection process on his um bench and finished with 265 let’s just say let’s say he finished with 265 the additional 10 kilos only would have moved him into 10th place so really rather insignificant so it really did
Kind of boil down into the deadlift and again just to clar you know I look 4259 is not a delusional number for him he’s got the strength to do it that’s let me clarify that a little bit I just think on the day given the circumstance and the the accumulative travel and the
Accumulative fatigue and so forth and squatting the world record and all those things I think when he pulled to be fair when he pulled the 426 in training I think we all know that he didn’t squat 478 or whatever before that and didn’t bench 275 before that so anyway and
Actually just just to give you to to this is almost more of just like a technical point that people don’t know if they haven’t worked with really heavy lifters we often talk about all the weight cut and how challenging it is for the the people who are not in the super
Heavies but I don’t think people appreciate how much strength will drop off if you lose weight as a super and how hard it is when you weigh over 400 pounds to maintain weight when you’re doing international travel yeah and how much of an impact that can have so you
Know it is um that that is not an insignificant thing and people sometimes just don’t talk about that with supers but it’s a big deal doing international travel and if and if like I’ve heard of supers losing five kilos in a day you know so yeah yeah and and to your point
This was the heaviest that he has ever been five kilos to the fact he weighed in at it’s disappointed because you want you we all want to see him hit that you know whatever he’s capable of so to be continued I think he will it’s just you
Know the environment needs to be right for that to happen so I think that’s exactly what it is man your last thought there is he’s capable everyone his prep was amazing that was like a historic prep it didn’t unfold it did the wheels started coming off and bench and they
Never really got back on but he’s for sure cable it’s only time so the naysayers got a little bit of time right now but Jesus is going to Rally back he made a really good post saying losing hurts so much more than winning feels good and it’s weird that
He would pose it and word it in the way of losing I get it because it’s a competition but on the same token yeah his look what his quote unquote losing total was it’s incredible he’s the strongest man that ever lived with all due respect all the world strong men
Compet competitors out there in terms of the man whose body can generate Force I think it’s jesusa laes of all time he’s a remarkable talent and um in the moment I could tell you just in the moment but I was a commentator I and you guys know when I’m commentating purely It’s Entertainment
Factor and that’s how my mind is when I remember when he loaded up 429 I was like good this is how the show needs to close and he was like a bull for the gates to open to charge at it and the I can tell you the crowd wanted him to load
That he missed it and you guys are coaches and you’re going to look at not the same and I respect that as well but I remember at the time thinking as a fan good good that’s how we go that’s how the show is gonna stop but um but yeah
We all have to view it through different goggles and uh you sure as hell should not be loading for your lifters for entertainment value so don’t follow the commentators uh go all in that’s going to be good for viewership um but let me open up the floor here fellas I’m we’re
Gonna save a deep dive of the women’s U for the women’s podcast episode but I wanted to give you guys a couple minutes if you had anything you wanted to talk about in terms of uh what you saw on the women’s side not a deep dive but go
Ahead matat or anything any any topic we haven’t talked about yet period let me just open yeah just before we get into the women I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t touch on Tony Cliff for just a second wa I have Tony in here wait a
Second no no I have wait actually I have Tony in here thank you there it is this one’s actually for Eric and then I’ll double back to you mat cool Eric okay good um Tony Cliff did not have the day he wanted but at 40 years old and this
Is nearing the end of his athletic career and he’s been around now you also had a very similar path late grabbing your pro card and bodybuilding at 40 years old and you’ve talked about this so I was actually saving this question for yourself and you jump in too mad afterwards
But what were your thoughts on the Tony Cliff him being able to he hung on in his career clinching the world title when he did obviously Sheffield is in the UK and this is his host nation and for Tony to be able to experience this just weeks away from his 40th
Birthday sure he did not live up to a thousand kilos the world record but Tony’s have so and I think it was almost like a wink wink I’m gonna sell this right now and I’m gonna drop some sound bites for you guys and he did and and
SBD chopped it up and sent it out and he did his job and the crowd received him and loved him before after during mean it’s it’s almost like a feel-good story whatever happens with Tony Cliff now all the the world titles the world championships and everything he’s
Achieved if this is the last major event that he’s in the mix I don’t know what’s going to happen at world he he’s going to be in the mix in that one too let’s be honest but this is he’s the reigning world champion in this one though like
He’s the guy coming in however this was gonna play out is this still a good story for Tony what was your feeling on it because he I asked him afterwards and he was like it was one of the best moments of my life my athletic career
I’m just so happy I was able to to be here when you’re pushing 40 and you can have check this off and no one will ever take away in your host nation 2,000 crazy fans all the people worldwide and I’m tossing into you first because you’ve kind of similar in a different
Sport yeah well I I I really appreciate that acknowledgement Ryan um yeah like I placed seventh in uh the pro division at wnbf Worlds in the middleweights um back in November and I can’t tell you like if you were someone who had been you know placing in
The top five in the Pro division for worlds for the last five years and you’re 28 you would probably view it then differently than me you know but I had just turned Pro three weeks prior to that um something that I had been actively had as a goal to get my wnbf
Pro card which is the largest um most competitive internationally natural bodybuilding organization since I had the goal that I set in 2006 when I went to my first competition where I got to see uh someone get their wbf Pro card and then I started competing in the in
The wnbf in 2009 so that was a 14 to 16 year goal in the making depending upon how you how you Dice it um so to play seventh um you know know and actually beat a few Pros in my Pro debut at Worlds um it was incredible and if I
Never do better than that for the rest of my career um I will always look back on that as an incredible success that took me further than I ever thought I would be um and I think powerlifting is more developed than bodybuilding so I’m not going to say it’s the same as
Getting the opportunity to get selected at Sheffield because Sheffield is truly the champions of Champions this would be a whole another level but I think it is it speaks to it’s probably something that I understand at at a at a now experiential level um to how Tony feels
That way despite maybe not performing the way he wanted because anyone who is on the Sheffield stage can argue and say I am one of the best powerlifters in the world I’m not just a world class powerlifter I am the best among worldclass powerlifters so there
Is like as soon as you get that invite there’s there’s no room for shame in my opinion even though some of these athletes hold themselves to an unrealistically high standard because you are on a level that is difficult for most people to Fathom you know not to
Spoil you mentioned the like the uh the women’s show a a Sito totaled 600 kilos at 69 I have totaled 600 kilos at 93 and I have slightly different physiology in in the lower half of my body you know what I’m saying so um yeah clearly
Clearly I’m not going to be even three levels below the people at Sheffield in terms of like sport development so what I can say is I think that’s a very commendable perspective in Tony and I really hope he keeps going because I will say there are people in their late
40s and 50s that we discussed in the Goat episode um who have continued Reigns in powerlifting much further than 39 or 40 um and the same thing is also true in in in bodybuilding I think when you are drug free and when you are talking about static strength not like
Explosive power or uh some of the other you know types of qualities that degrade earlier with age you have probably more shelf life than you think and it’s really just about staying injury free and having the will um so I I I think it’s awesome I hope Tony keeps going and
Um it almost doesn’t matter how he performed in my opinion but I did I did love that he was like I’m coming for a thousand and then you start to see his Squad attempt selection his bench attempt selection like oh this is very reasonable you know like I’m setting
Myself up record and I went three for three on squats and then screw it you know like once we’re I’ve already missed a deadlift and and what’s the point of going for 360 again let’s Chuck 385 on there and and see see what the hell happens
Like if there’s a place to do it it’s a Sheffield right so that that that’s my feelings on it yeah I uh coming into this I knew the I was like this question is going to be teed up for Eric because it Sim you would have it like you said
It wasn’t the exact same but you would have the similarities in terms of be able to speak on when you get there at 40 and you’re amongst the best of the best it’s like it’s different it it’s different try it at 40 some of these
Guys at 25 try to end up at win a world title and get the Sheffield and and see what’s up and to be like I’m still here still here and I’m and his perspective he knows like I’m I’m I might not be here ever again it’s different so when
You hit that when he walked I talked to him beforehand me and Tony talk and I talked to him beforehand and I knew he’s gonna do this anyways but I was like embrace it and remember it man like drink it all in like a thirsty man it’s different things are different when you
Know these moments are fleeting it’s different when you’re 40 and you’re walking out there like I I don’t know so I’m GNA I’m not going to you walk out you look at the crowd like I’m going to take a mental picture right now as opposed to your five and you’re like
Full of pissing vinegar you know you don’t Gavin a name approaching that the same way that Tony Cliff is you know what I mean and um I think Tony had that attitude going in and then afterwards it was easier to be like all right I didn’t
Hit the numbers I wanted but I got I had my moment I [ __ ] it I threw and to your point with the last deadlift different than Jesus he threw it out there like fired let’s have fun let’s fire my shot I don’t know if I’m coming back 40 maybe
I do maybe I don’t let me go out on my shield if I hit this my God they’re going to sing songs about me in the bars tonight you know um Matt what do you think bud I agree with everything you guys said I’ll just add just a little
Bit obviously because I usually come at things from a tactical perspective kind of look at data and nuts and bolts um but yes I agree with everything you said and I’m gonna add on to that at just the end um I I thought his bench attempt selection could have been a little bit
Better having I I spoke to Tony in the lobby the morning that we were leaving so this was after the banquet after the Super Bowl um where I sat with you and Tony Ryan during the Super Bowl and and explained how American football works and how it’s played and the rules and I
Am confident that the two of you now understand the game and that makes me very very that makes me very happy um that was a win for American football yeah that we that we shared that moment together um kicking back a few a few adult beverages and explaining American
Football but anyway I spoke to Tony he told me that he benched um where I think we all saw that he hit 255 and changeed in training he posted that I’ll be at a touch and go so his rationale when I talked to him was he wanted to open on
240 which was what he did go ahead and swing for the world record and then potentially if he had the world record on his second his plan was to go up to uh 260 kilos or at least that’s what he wanted to do which would have just been you know just
Mind-blowing um it didn’t happen he missed you know both his second and third attempt on strength and that kind of set the stage for the rest of the day and and how he kind of had to take some shots during the deadlift he had that literally just a one-off of all one-offs
I’ve never seen him do that in the deadlift on that second attempt where he kind of took a step like as he was locking it out he kind of shuffled it looked like he was doing a two-step dance move there that was really weird never seen that before and then at that
Point he’s just looking at the score put on the 385 to move himself into fifth place and it was a long shot and it wasn’t there don’t blame him for taking it his circumstances I believe were a little bit different than Jesus’s but let me say this I think that
If Tony C we have not seen the last of Tony Cliff um and and I absolutely love him and respect him as a two you know two genre athlete here both equipped and and and raw what he’s done for British powerlifting um has been amazing you know he is the grandfather The Godfather
Whatever term you want to use British powerlifting and I think it’s phenomenal and I just love him and he is Gonna Come to to the World Championships okay he is gonna be in Lithuania and I’m telling you right now he’s gonna Podium and he is gonna make it to the world games and
So we have not seen the we we we may have seen the last of Tony Cliff at Sheffield but I do not believe we have seen the last of Tony Cliff competing at a extraordinarily high level and so I think Tony he’s got 16 weeks now between
Now so I hope he’s listening to this you have 16 weeks now to continue to build on your 955 a half kilo PB total and so I think we all know that he has the capability of beating that PB total with more pragmatic and strategic attempt selection which he’s gonna need at
Worlds because you fight that battle and you play that game differently this one incentivizes World Records World Championships incentivizes securing the dub and so I think that Tony will take a different strategic approach or I certainly hope that he does not swing for the fence on that second attempt in
The bench you know what I mean perhaps take a 242 and a half or something like that on the second bench get the world record bench on the third he’s got a chip to play with okay and I believe he will podium in Lithuania and make it to World
Games and put on a good show there so that is my challenge to you Tony I love you I hope you you’re gonna do that so if he comes back and tightens up the attempts and so forth and puts together the meat that I know that we we all
Believe he’s capable of putting together he can hit a PB total and walk out of the World Championships on the podium and with that bench press world record all those things are within his grasp right they’re all within reach that would be that would be yeah that that
Would be yeah that would be phenomenal he doesn’t need to go into the world championships and hit a world record total forget about you know I mean you just need to go in there and do your part make lifts make eight or nine attempts be relevant at the end you’ve
Got a really big deadlift you know what I mean we it’s to be determined on who’s going to come over on the American side and the other competitors but judging from the from the cast of characters where that were in Malta Tony Cliff is gonna Podium at Worlds I’m telling you
He’s gonna Podium and with better attemp sele he’ll hit the world record bench too he’s capable I know he is only by 2025 at the world games would be insane this guy is like the guy who just won’t go away and it’s amazing and I
Love to see and I love it we we need there yeah we all do it would be great great for powerlifting man yeah great for master great for Masters lifters yeah he’s uh God damn how do we get here huh Tony but here we are he’s a
Legend all right um yeah so is there anything look we we’ve done this we’re closing it on two and a half half hours so I don’t know how many highlight we have a whole episode on the women’s do you think we got to throw anything out there or do you think we’re good
Gentlemen you know I I snuck in the uh the agat Sito total so I I feel like we did our job and I think I don’t want to steal any of the uh the Thunder that you guys are gonna have in that awesome episode I can’t wait to listen to it
Yeah thank you and yeah two and a half hours later I think we’ve uh We’ve covered our bases dude this this is this was a really good podcast gentlemen I appreciate um the breakdowns and uh the different takes on it and I like the format where I throw a question to one
Of you first and then open the door for the other one to add on to it and then even have a couple tabled questions for both of you like who’s number 166 or who’s going to blah blah blah we’re we’re we’re starting to get on to something here fellas it’s a good format
For the recap and um I also want to revisit the powerlifting Jeopardy and we have to try to hunt down somebody that could challenge Matt Gary that’s not going to be easy but it ain’t me but I need to find some new Challengers and uh and somebody’s got to
Make a run at Matt Gary put a pin in that one I’m thinking about this and if anyone’s listening give me some ideas and DM some people actually stepped up so we’ll see what happens but I just need a little time so anyways um everybody listening please do subscribe
Give us high ratings as per usual and until next time sixpack lapid that we around
4 Comments
This year felt like the women’s division was way more competitive and entertaining then the men’s. Agata performance is going way undervalued. She put up a top 3 performances of all time (no matter the gender) She did what Jesse did but better and a way higher standard. 612 dots 600kg total at 152lbs at 21!!???
I hate hearing PB 😂 cmon its PR
37:33 the moment where they all got stuck once Petrie got mentioned. Cause we all know once he’s in- it’s game over
51:56 Don Orhii and Consiglieri Wallace 😂