Biggest Bench in The UFC

[Cooliox]

This guy writes like I did back in high-school for my projects with the unnecessary prolongation of sentences to reach the minimum word count, but with elementary school grammar.

"I've been getting alarmingly substantial amount of hate"

LOL.

I love his threads. Unintentional humor is the best.

 

[Wariowokecancel]

So ever since I laid down the case of why exactly Robbie Lawler beat Carlos Condit fair and square and had my, now infamous, come to Jesus meeting regarding the Unified Rules judging criteria, I've been getting alarmingly substantial amount of hate here on Sherdog forums, man. This combined with the increasing interest in Jon Jones' new strength program prompted me to go a little bit more light hearted on this thread and more specifically combine it with a strength and conditioning angle.

Now personally, I'm not big on Cross Fit, not to mention this Ido Portal stuff that seems more like a hippy congregation to me, rather my regime consists of good old fashion Arnold style body building workouts. Now we all know that dudes have always wanted to have that massive chest and huge arms, so I decided to focus on the grand daddy of strength exercises, which of course is the bench press. Now as far as UFC fighters go there's been a few with pretty impressive benches under their belts namely Brock Lesnar and Tank Abbot but let's focus on the current roster here guys. So who's got the biggest in the entire UFC roster? We're looking at raw numbers here but if you wanna take the pound for pound angle here, that's fine too!

And another shit empty thread from Hujarabi. The name change is for any Poles here.

 

[Eric Brown]

They're both former lineman in the NFL. They needed to hit at least 25-30 on the 225 bench test at the combine to be taken seriously. That equates to about a 400 lb max.

In theory it equates to it. In practice it is quite different. Putting up a good 1rm (with good technique) is more than just size and the ability to bang out reps. Factors such as rate coding, motor unit recruitment, and inter- and intra muscular coordination all play a huge role, and these factors need to be trained to be efficient. It is why weightlifters and powerlifters are stronger at their specific lifts than other athletes of a similar weight. Well, that and skill in general.

There is literally no way to "translate" from muscular endurance (25+ reps) to strength. No accurate way. Sure, calculators abound, but really they are inaccurate as hell at that range.

And no, no they do not. There are linemen who have passed entirely on the bench portion of the combine. For some reason people are hung up on this issue, when really that portion of the combine is pretty much just a show for certain people and allow those who are good at it to show off a bit in case they do not do well at other areas.

Many teams could care less about the bench press, and quite a few D1 programs avoid it in their programming, just to be on the safe side. Not to say there is anything wrong with the lift (there is not) but given how common shoulder injuries are, and the need to ensure everyone is healthy, a lot more focus is often given to other pressing exercises.

But what would I know? I only do this for a living.

 

[Wariowokecancel]

And dumbass thinks bench is the granddaddy.

How old is Chamarabi? 15?

 

[Eric Brown]

This thread is the perfect "bro science" thread...

Pretty much, yeah.

And if anyone is interested, until powerlifting became big (70's, even though first worlds was 1964) the standard lift that was used to gauge a man's strength was the press (overhead). Yes, weightlifters would clean and press, but pressing overhead from the rack was very popular.

Then a bunch of people found out they could lay down and lift more that way, and assumed more is better. Of course, the press (overhead) recruits more of the upper back and requires greater core stabilization. Hands down my number one pressing exercises for athletes who compete on their feet (assuming they do not have a pre-existing condition that limits their performance in this area).

 

[RoadKing Custom]

I thought this was FUN. I am NOT making a statement about the benchpress, or NFL combine hopefuls, or bodybuilders.

 

[tenniswhiz]

It's probably Overeem or Hunt with the biggest bench press.

It's a tricky exercise to guess someone's number on, and it can transcend weight class...
I would bet guys like Sherk and even Mendes, can probably bench press as much as some MW.

 

[Bend NvR Break]

In theory it equates to it. In practice it is quite different. Putting up a good 1rm (with good technique) is more than just size and the ability to bang out reps. Factors such as rate coding, motor unit recruitment, and inter- and intra muscular coordination all play a huge role, and these factors need to be trained to be efficient. It is why weightlifters and powerlifters are stronger at their specific lifts than other athletes of a similar weight. Well, that and skill in general.

There is literally no way to "translate" from muscular endurance (25+ reps) to strength. No accurate way. Sure, calculators abound, but really they are inaccurate as hell at that range.

And no, no they do not. There are linemen who have passed entirely on the bench portion of the combine. For some reason people are hung up on this issue, when really that portion of the combine is pretty much just a show for certain people and allow those who are good at it to show off a bit in case they do not do well at other areas.

Many teams could care less about the bench press, and quite a few D1 programs avoid it in their programming, just to be on the safe side. Not to say there is anything wrong with the lift (there is not) but given how common shoulder injuries are, and the need to ensure everyone is healthy, a lot more focus is often given to other pressing exercises.

But what would I know? I only do this for a living.

I played LB in college and they had those scales all over the place that said if you (for example) lift 225 10x then you should be able to lift 295. I always found myself possessing better 1 rep maxes then the calculators predicated.

Yes you are right though the bench is not as important as people make it out to be. My hs coach said if you could only do one lift do the power clean. 2 lifts then power clean and squat. 3 lifts then add bench

 

[BobbyTKD]

Yes. Nobody famous, though.

Not much use for the bench, as most athletes seem to come to me with some sort of shoulder injury. Spend almost as much time doing injury management and rehab (and restoring compromised movement patterns, increasing joint mobility, etc.). Really, once a fighter has a decent strength based, there is no need to go particularly heavy on any barbell exercise. And I am a big fan of strength work on a personal level.

Given that so much of the power generated when fighting comes from the legs and back and transfers through the core, it is quite possible to train a fighter and never have them bench. I am not saying it is a worthless exercise, but time can be better spent in other areas.

And bodybuilding-type workouts are worthless for fighters. You do not train just muscles, you need to train groups and movement patterns while lifting. The occasional isolation exercise should be used to correct a deficiency, which can include a weakness in a specific muscle or muscle group. But grinding away on rep after rep compromises recovery, and takes away from the athletes skill-based training.

Well said... If the bench press is the granddaddy of anything it is that of shoulder impingement. There are probably a million other exercises more appropriate for fighting.

 

[RoadKing Custom]

It's probably Overeem or Hunt with the biggest bench press.

It's a tricky exercise to guess someone's number on, and it can transcend weight class...
I would bet guys like Sherk and even Mendes, can probably bench press as much as some MW.

I would think to be as accurate as possible, and to find out who is "strongest" in the bench we would need to do a % of bodyweight... not just raw lbs perhaps? But, I no very little of what I speak.

 

[Scyther]

edit: thought it said biggest bitch in the ufc. nevermind.

This pic still works this "once in a life time athlete" can definitely bench the most.

 

[Hammurabi]

I thought this was FUN. I am NOT making a statement about the benchpress, or NFL combine hopefuls, or bodybuilders.

Dude, that bodybuilder's a MONSTER! Jesus, blew that footballer out of the water no question about it whatsoever. Good God.

 

[RoadKing Custom]

This is also fun to watch
(has nothing to do with benching).

 

[Kneepocalypse]

I'm not reading all that. Tank Abbot had the biggest bench press though.

Nah, he used fake plates in the infamous video.

 

[Prime Ang]

Nah, he used fake plates in the infamous video.

You got proof? Never heard that before.

 

[Hammurabi]

This is also fun to watch
(has nothing to do with benching).

Dude, I'm about to watch all of them right now! Nice find, man!

 

[Hans Gercmiov]

edit: thought it said biggest bitch in the ufc. nevermind.

I laughed hard at that one.

 

[RoadKing Custom]

Nah, he used fake plates in the infamous video.

You got proof? Never heard that before.

I agree with Mr. Black Angus here..

 

[Hammurabi]

This is also fun to watch
(has nothing to do with benching).

Man, never heard of that Joel Thomas guy. He's a beast no question about it.

 

[Wariowokecancel]

You got proof? Never heard that before.

Dude.

He has one guy checking him for a fucking 600lbs press.

And he bounces that shit off his chest.

600lbs.

200lbs would break something if his technique was that shit.