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Armwrestling’s First Super Match

Posted on Friday, January 29th, 2016 by John Wood

Starting in the 1930’s, the man to beat in the armwrestling (sometimes called “wrist wrestling”) world was California strength athlete and tavern owner Mac Batchelor. People came from far and wide to have a go with Mac but none succeeded, Batchelor undefeated in an estimated 4000 matches.

It just so happened, in the mid-40’s a new challenge showed up in town in the form of Earle Audet, a two-time national champion shotputter and professional football player for the Los Angeles Dons. Audet was also similarly undefeated as an armwrestler …someone had the grand idea to pit these two titans head to head and the first “Supermatch” was born.

December, 16th, 1946 was the date and they met up in the famed Embassy auditorium for a 2 out of 3 falls bout. Audet tipped the scales at 250 lbs., which was certainly large for the time but Batchelor was closer to 300 lbs. Outweighed and out-experienced, it was Batchelor who eventually came out the winner and declared the World’s champion. It should also be noted that the table used was designed by George F. Jowett.

Mustafa Toosi

Posted on Thursday, February 13th, 2014 by John Wood

Mustafa Toosi, the great Iranian wrestling champion, won the modern Pahlevani competition, in 1944-45, 1945-46 and 1946-47. Here Toosi holds a pair of traditional heavy clubs known as Meels. Each of these Meels are about 4 feet long and weigh around 60 pounds (27 kg). It’s an impressive feat just to be able to hold them in this position, let alone swing them.

Alan Stephan, Mr. America!

Posted on Friday, October 11th, 2013 by John Wood

Alan Stephan, Mr. America!

Surprisingly, few Mr. America title winners had their own training courses. Alan Stephan, the winner of the 1946 AAU Mr. America title was one who did. Here’s a nifty ad for his training course which ran in several magazines. As a side note, the 1946 Mr. America contest was actually the first contest Stephan entered.
Stephan could also lay claim to being “Mr. America” more-so that anyone else, since he was the only man to win the title in the AAU as well as the IFBB (which he accomplished in 1948).

Grigori Novak

Posted on Tuesday, March 20th, 2012 by John Wood

Grigori Novak - Russian Weightlifter

Known as “The Ukranian Hercules,” Grigori Novak was the greatest weightlifter of his era. He stood only 5’3″ but set 111 Soviet records and 62 World records throughout his career. On October, 19th, 1946 at the World Championships, held at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France, Novak totaled 425 kg (935 pounds) in the light-heavyweight class to become the first Soviet weightlifting world champion. Shown above is the completion of Novak’s winning snatch of 130 kg (286 pounds).