John Brzenk

John Brzenk (born July 15, 1964) is a professional armwrestler from the United States, who is widely acknowledged as 'the greatest armwrestler of all time'. His grandfather immigrated to the US from Poland. During his undefeated streak of 22 years and career as a professional armwrestler, Brzenk has won more than 500 championship titles. John Brzenk's father, John Brzenk Sr., was an arm wrestler, and Brzenk says he gained some of his forearm size through genetics. John started his amateur career in the classroom, where he arm wrestled students across tables for five years. When he was in eighth grade, he broke his arm while armwrestling his father's friend, and has stated that this breakage increased his tendon strength significantly. Over the years, Brzenk has often been called "The Giant Crusher", "Superman", or the "Perfect Storm" for his ability to pin opponents twice his size.Brzenk started his professional career in 1982, at the age of 18, where he won his first world title on ABC's 1983 Wide World of Sports. From 1982 to 2015, John only lost a single supermatch, and only a handful of people had beaten him in tournaments. Most of these losses occurred later during that time when he was of advanced age. Two of his most prominent losses were to Alexey Voyevoda in 2004 (John's first professional loss after 22 years) and Devon Larratt in 2008, both of whom are considered legendary arm wrestlers. Aside from arm wrestling, John works as a mechanic at Delta Air Lines. He says the job is non-physical so his arms get plenty of rest. During his career he has competed for upwards of $80,000 USD.Brzenk won championships in a number of different weight classes, including four world championships in the heavyweight division, and the middleweight world championship. He also had an uncredited cameo in the 1987 Sylvester Stallone film Over the Top, and was the subject of the feature documentary "Pulling John", directed by Vassiliki Khonsari and Sevan Matossian. The documentary chronicles Brzenk's legendary arm wrestling career by following him intimately for 4 years, in which John competes in global tournaments and ponders retiring from the sport he loves. After defeating Marcio Barboza in the 2015 WAL Heavyweight Right-Handed Championship, Brzenk would take an extended period of time off from armwrestling due to injuries.