Mike Israetel - sage or egomaniac??

[Koya]

Bro finna hit him David Goggins arc I rate it



#NeverTrainFlaccid

Those guy make lifting weights sound like it's climbing mount Everest or something. STFU it's just lifting weights everybody does it

 

[NoSmilez]

Israetel just got a male BBL. He better win that pro card.

 

[Trabaho]

Watching him very occassionaly lately. Very cool dude. Pretty much only guy I consistently watch a full video on training and sports the last months. Good sense of humor and vocabulary. Aproved.

 

[Bullitt68]

Watch World’s Strongest Man Martins Licis Win ADCC Open - Jitsmagazine.com

Former World’s Strongest Man Martins Licis just won a gold medal at the ADCC San Diego Open 2025 on January 18th, 2025.

jitsmagazine.com

Licis is an outlier. He is one of the more mobile strongmen. He also wrestled in high school. There is some footage of him grappling. He gooned his opponents. They were all novice but so was he.

He's also WAY smaller (height-wise and weight-wise) than a Shaw or Thor. The latter two would be even scarier to step on a mat against, as competition is very different than friendly rolling for social media content. When Martins was going for whatever arm drag-looking technique that was in the second vid I was legit scared for the other guy that his arm was going to get broken. Forget about actually getting my limbs wrenched by someone who was once literally the World's Strongest Man

 

[NoSmilez]

He's also WAY smaller (height-wise and weight-wise) than a Shaw or Thor. The latter two would be even scarier to step on a mat against, as competition is very different than friendly rolling for social media content. When Martins was going for whatever arm drag-looking technique that was in the second vid I was legit scared for the other guy that his arm was going to get broken. Forget about actually getting my limbs wrenched by someone who was once literally the World's Strongest Man

Yea it’s crazy how he is “small” guy in that sport even though he is 350 lbs.

 

[Bullitt68]

Yea it’s crazy how he is “small” guy in that sport even though he is 350 lbs.

Yep. IIRC, at their biggest Eddie Hall was 440, Shaw was 450, and Thor was 460. There's a reason that Gordon Ryan said in that vid with Martins and Thor that it should be illegal to teach those guys BJJ. They can fucking win comps with what we can charitably call rudimentary skills. With actual skills...

Spoiler

 

[Highway99]

I remember there was an absolutely massive former oil rigger that used to train with a friend of mine. The guys just didn't know his own strength. They ended up making him duct tape his Andre the Giant hands into fists when he rolled because he kept crushing everyone's shit when he grabbed them.

 

[usernamee]

He's also WAY smaller (height-wise and weight-wise) than a Shaw or Thor. The latter two would be even scarier to step on a mat against, as competition is very different than friendly rolling for social media content. When Martins was going for whatever arm drag-looking technique that was in the second vid I was legit scared for the other guy that his arm was going to get broken. Forget about actually getting my limbs wrenched by someone who was once literally the World's Strongest Man

Knee on belly from Shaw or Thor and your entire rib cage gets caved in

 

[KnightTemplar]

Yep. IIRC, at their biggest Eddie Hall was 440, Shaw was 450, and Thor was 460. There's a reason that Gordon Ryan said in that vid with Martins and Thor that it should be illegal to teach those guys BJJ. They can fucking win comps with what we can charitably call rudimentary skills. With actual skills...

Spoiler

And Gordon Ryan is a strong MF, at least by Human standards.

The thing is, if Shaw, Thor etc were training BJJ seriously, they wouldn't be able to hit the weights as hard as they did when competing in Strongman. But they could sacrifice some brute strength and power for skill, and still be an order of magnitude stronger than 99% of anyone they fought.

 

[ChickenBrother]

And Gordon Ryan is a strong MF, at least by Human standards.

The thing is, if Shaw, Thor etc were training BJJ seriously, they wouldn't be able to hit the weights as hard as they did when competing in Strongman. But they could sacrifice some brute strength and power for skill, and still be an order of magnitude stronger than 99% of anyone they fought.

A grappler with the size and strength of Hafthor and the movement and skills of Ryan would be awesome but like you say, I don't think that's remotely possible. Top ultra heavy grapplers are already juiced to the gills and if more size and strength was the answer, they'd already be doing it.

We've seen this before with folks thinking "A level athletes" like NFL players, Olympic medalists, etc. can come in and steamroll elite grapplers/MMA fighters and it doesn't hold water. They're different sports with different skills and attributes.

While IMO the theoretically ideal grappler at absolute would be around 300 lbs, I don't think you can get much bigger than that without cannibalizing cardio and mobility to their detriment. Off the top of my head, the biggest elite grappler we've seen is Ricardo Morais who took silver at ADCC 1998 absolute and fought MMA in Pride and other promotions. He looked like Blanka from Street Fighter II and was 6' 8" 278 lbs.






But I would have loved to have seen what 2002 Bob Sapp at 6' 5" 350 lbs could have done had his style been BJJ and not "NFL" lol.

 

[Meatspin]

Have seen a few of his videos, seems like a sincere dude.

 

[KnightTemplar]

Israetel just got a male BBL. He better win that pro card.View attachment 1088877

 

[NoSmilez]