Nikola Petroff Archives - www.oldtimestrongman.com

Oldtime Wrestlers

Posted on Friday, March 11th, 2022 by John Wood

A group of oldtime wrestlers, circa 1904. At the time they were competing in a tournament at the Palast Theatre in Berlin, Germany in April of 1904. Pictured from left to right: Nikola Petroff, Georg Lurich, Ivan Romanoff, Laurent le Beaucairois, Ferdinand Dieckmann, and John Pohl. BTW, Petroff defeated John Pohl in the finals to win the tournament. Laurent le Beaucairois finished third and Lurich fourth.

Raymond Cazeaux

Posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2017 by John Wood

Born into a family of farmers in the Ossau Valley of Southern France in 1881, Raymond Cazeaux went on to became of the greatest French wrestlers of all time. He fought over a thousand matches, tussling with champions from all over the world, the likes of: Ed ‘Strangler’ Lewis, Constant le Marin, Stanislaus Zbyszko, George Lurich, Dr. Ben Roller, Paul Pons, Jess Petersen, Yussif Hussane, Nikola Petroff, and Ivan Poddubny. During his travels, Cazeaux would happily give free wrestling lessons to police officers wherever he went. Needless to say, he made many friends.

Cazeaux was actually not his real name, his given name was Cazeau but early in his career, a promoter thought the added “X” on the end looked better on a poster, and so it was! Cazeaux stood six feet and weighed around 220 lbs.

Rather remarkably, Cazeaux’s fame did not end a century ago, his likeness, was featured as the exotic boxer who was the namesake of Uncle Pastuzo, in the delightful 2014 children’s movie Paddington.

Nikola Petroff

Posted on Sunday, September 6th, 2015 by John Wood

Here’s a rare shot of the great Bulgarian wrestling champion, Nikola Petroff and, like most wrestlers of the day, Petroff was impressive from a physique standpoint as well. Petroff became the World Greco-Roman champion in 1900 by defeating Paul Pons. Over his 25 year career, Petroff only suffered defeat once, and it was at the hands of Marijan Matijevic.