Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
7x Mr. Olympia 212 Champion Flex Lewis presents Straight Outta The Lair, the podcast that aims to bring you vital information for your life's ambitions, providing valuable insight from interviews of the many many different faces that walk through our doors at The Dragon's Lair Las Vegas and a few from the man himself.
Straight Outta The Lair with Flex Lewis
Giants Live In Vegas | Straight Outta The Lair Podcast
Ever wondered what happens when a group of strongmen tries to fit into an Uber? Our latest episode welcomes a crew of giant athletes who share their side-splitting travel adventures, starting with a tale from Las Vegas where they left an Uber driver in disbelief. From pranks on planes to jaw-dropping reactions on crowded flights, you’ll get a front-row seat to the unique challenges these titans face on the road. Their camaraderie and shared laughs will have you hooked from the get-go!
Prepare to be transported to the exhilarating world of competitive strongman events. Our guests recount their experiences at the World’s Strongest Nation event in Ukraine and give us an insider’s look at the upcoming Giants Live show in Las Vegas. We discuss the evolution of strongman physiques, the physical and mental toll of the sport, and the inspiring journey of female strength athletes like Lucy, who’s setting new records and breaking barriers in women’s strength sports. The energy and passion for their craft are palpable as they share the highs and lows of their careers.
We also dive into the fascinating crossover between strongman competitions and bodybuilding. Hear personal stories of athletes who transitioned from other sports, like WWE, and found their true passion in strength athletics. Eddie’s unique blend of lifting and singing, Evan’s transformation post-WWE, and the humorous yet competitive spirit among these giants will leave you inspired and entertained. As we build up to the Giants Live event in Las Vegas, we explore the growth of the sport, fan engagement, and the legacy being created by these incredible athletes. Don’t miss out on this action-packed episode filled with laughter, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes insights!
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----- Content -----
00:00:00 - Intro
00:08:13 - Giants Live
00:20:08 - Women's Strength Records and Progression
00:27:05 - Weightlifting Competition and Records Discussion
00:37:01 - Mindsets in Strongman and Bodybuilding
00:40:01 - Bodybuilding to Strongman Transition and Performances
00:47:28 - Strongman Competitions
00:53:43 - Evolution of Strongman Fan Engagement
01:01:13 - Giants Live Las Vegas Preparations
Hey, Straight out the rock. We have had some incredibly big guests, and the last time I said they can't be any bigger than the last two, and that was the Stalked Down Brothers. Today we have this crew Giants live on the podcast Rock. What a group of guys and girls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just sitting here thinking to myself. There's a lot of calorie consumption happening at this table right here. We slaughtered a couple cows just for lunch today, so we're ready to go, guys.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Well, guys and girls, welcome to the podcast, Welcome to the show. You know we're doing something a little bit different here, hence why you are not in the studio. In fact, we couldn't get you guys in the studio. That's how much meat we've got here.
Speaker 1:So we had to rent out this studio courtesy of my guy Tyus, our podcaster producer, and I want to get you all on the show, but thank you very much for being here. I know that you're all in Vegas for a reason and we're going to talk about that in a little bit, but that didn't go off to a good start, certainly. I know that day one ended in a uber catastrophe. I want to bring this up, straight up off the back. Who wants to take that story?
Speaker 5:Everyone, I do All right.
Speaker 6:Don't forget, we came to train at Flex's Gym. Yes, we were at the.
Speaker 5:Dragon's Lair. We came to train. We were just getting our last workout and a little bit of blood flow. Nothing strenuous, nothing bad. It was me, graham and Eddie. We ordered an Uber back to the hotel, freshen up, get ready for dinner and last food and all that good stuff. I am outside waiting for the Uber. He pulls up like big SUV, small minivan-type car, pretty big, and this is Uber XL, by the way. I ordered Uber XL, so I ordered the big car and I put my gym bag in the back in the trunk, and then graham and eddie came out. He had all of the doors open. I was about to get in there. He puts one of the seats down so that one of us can get into the back of the car and then he turns around. He looked at all three of us and and he said you guys break my car, you're too big.
Speaker 5:He puts the seat back up, closes all the doors and says you can order another Uber, and then just gets in and drives away when you told me this I thought you were just taking a piss. We thought he was joking too. No way bro.
Speaker 8:We thought he was being sarcastic, because he was like oh no, no, closes his door because I was trying to say we're going to put you in the back yeah, I'm happy to go to him talking of tip you were like my car is going to tip over that's not happening but you guys didn't even try to convince him.
Speaker 5:He was just like he was gone, right no, no, he as soon as those doors were closed he got in his car and just left. He was done with the situation because I went into my office.
Speaker 1:I come back out and then I see all of you after saying goodbyes. You know it was kind of like that who you know for me. I'm on my tip towards saying hi, bye and hi to every one of you and then you come back in. You're like what the fuck? You said? No, my uber got canceled. There's no way. He said flex this is what happened. I went outside he said you're all too big. And he drove off and I was like bro, I've been living here four years.
Speaker 2:You've been living here 20 something years, right I mean, have you ever heard of that before? I'd never seen it. But it's funny because we were talking to to luke and tom yesterday, like when we were talking about how they travel, and I'm like dude, like if I'm sitting on a plane and I see either of you two guys come and I'm like oh shit I'm trying like please don't sit here, right.
Speaker 2:So I I feel like this kind of stuff must happen. You know, all the time, right like you guys, run into these type situations no, no, that's never happened to me before.
Speaker 5:That's why.
Speaker 1:I was so taken back by it, and you live in. Tennessee, and that's like you're coming over from the UK, like a lot of the guys, yeah.
Speaker 8:I actually prank a lot of people on my flights. Oh no. So I'll walk up to people. It's not in my seat but I'll say, oh, I'm next to you, and they go, oh no. And then like, especially when there's like an old lady or a you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 8:And just their reaction and I like I've got a few online that I've posted.
Speaker 2:But their reaction is so funny when they get up and go to move their bag and they go. I'm jerking, oh, thank god, but I am behind you. Yeah, it's like they see debo come in they're like oh my gosh, I just you can tuck mine in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys got any stories like with traveling and stuff that, uh, that you've run into nick's nodding what have you got? You need a mic. Just hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. There we go. Sorry, I got a mic now Just to let everybody who's watching know. Right, we have a big group of guys and girls, as you can see.
Speaker 1:Literally a big group and we've got very limited mics, so for us to scramble. And then Nick. You know Nick has was going to be because he blew his hand up a few fucking weeks ago.
Speaker 5:But anyway, carry on with your traveling story. Before he goes on with the story, I just want to say Naveed with Uber XL, fuck you.
Speaker 1:Fuck you Naveed, Fuck you Naveed. There we go, no, no.
Speaker 8:We just got canceled. Right at that point in time we got to give him one star, one star.
Speaker 6:He's an investor on this podcast, by the way. I was sorry, v.
Speaker 7:I know you're the biggest sponsor on the show. No, I'm joking, I feel better now too. We were doing the TV show and we were going from Denver to Cody Wyoming and we all flew into Denver, caught up with Brian, caught up with Brian and then we all got on the plane and the person put Eddie and Robbie in the same two seats next to each other. Oh, I've seen this picture and it was real.
Speaker 7:They actually screwed that up. They had me in the seat next to them and I had an open seat next to me, which was awesome, but they got stuck on that hour and 15-minute flight right next to each other the whole way down the plane was full. On that hour and 15 minute flight right next to each other. The whole way down the plane was full. Brian got stuck up in front and they had him on the bulkhead with the arms that would not move. I mean, they're solid. All the way down he literally couldn't get in the seat. So they had to move him back a couple rows and then move him over once so that he could actually get in the seat, because he could not literally sit in the seat, because he could not like literally sit in the seat.
Speaker 2:It's just crazy. Those are long flights too.
Speaker 7:Yeah, that's a long time to be stuck like that it's a short one because it's only an hour and a half but, but it's long, it's long when you're cramped.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, some of these guys.
Speaker 2:I mean I know somebody flew from from across the pond right.
Speaker 1:So eddie came from across the pond, terry's come over as well.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, I've had a few occasions where I've been on the flight in the seat first and the other customers have come on, and when they've seen the seat next to me, they've just been like no.
Speaker 3:And they fucking get in the air, I'll sit.
Speaker 6:I don't even have a seat. I like people literally standing there and say I refuse to sit next to him. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4:I wouldn't want to sit next to you either.
Speaker 1:Would you want to sit next?
Speaker 4:to any of us. No, I wouldn't want to sit next to me either.
Speaker 7:Flying Southwest is they don't have that assigned seating. So you get in that first 25, pay the little extra, you get in there and then you sit like second row front seat and then you'll watch somebody come in and sit next to the window. Next to the window and you see if anybody will come in and it's the very last person that gets on the plane that will take that seat.
Speaker 1:It's the most desperate person. Just like, get me on that plane, right.
Speaker 3:And then he's like oh shit, I signed up for this, didn't I?
Speaker 1:That's what happens because I came late. But anyway, don Sadler, you know you are the OG tournament director of the World's Strongest man and promoter extraordinaire for a giant's life do my best. Yeah, you have. You've got some incredible stories that uh you've told about uh travels in your days yeah, I mean probably.
Speaker 9:Me and terry have been probably around about the longest. You know, me and terry were competing together. Well, I don't like to say, it was like 20 years ago.
Speaker 9:Yeah, literally, I was trying to give you I was trying to get you he even feels wrong saying it, but it's true. Yeah, and there's been some crazy. We used to compete a lot in Ukraine and Russia and places like that, and there's been some crazy stories over the years. Pop some. We got on a plane, we did a thing called World's Strongest Nation over in Ukraine and we flew into a place called Sevastopol, which which is a teeny little airport, and we got on a plane. It was like it was like a propeller plane and every single seat had a strongman on it. You know, and the guys like I think the strongman nowadays are actually leaner than they used to be. Yeah, well, look at Terry. Terry used to be quite fat. Yeah, yeah, I was fat.
Speaker 9:I'm still fat, just less fat and the plane starts going on the runway. It was totally full, I think. It was maybe like a 30, 40-seater plane and it just literally it just seemed like it wouldn't take off. And I was saying to the guy who was tournament director then I'm like, because I was a competitor, I was like, does this guy not realise there's literally like three people sat on each seat here and then we all started panicking, you know yeah, yeah yeah, and it went.
Speaker 9:It just wouldn't take off and it stopped and they came out to it and all that and I'm sat thinking, but but you wouldn't get like. Everyone was like, I was the lightest person, I was like 125, yeah, and these guys are only 200 kilos like. But you wouldn't do that, would you? What is that?
Speaker 7:440 pounds I gotta get my uh american uh pound conversion.
Speaker 1:Like believe it or not.
Speaker 9:I mean, if you look at the old line-up of World's Strongest man, no disrespect to the older guys, but they did carry a bit more body fat, whereas nowadays, probably because of the events, the guys are a bit more slimline, you know.
Speaker 4:I remember doing the same competition actually, but I think it was the year after 2008, and I had to do I'm not going to name them because it's a bit cruel. I'm not going to name him because he's a bit cruel, but we all flew the same sort of thing. We all flew into Kiev and then had to fly across Ukraine and I had to sit next to one of the Ukrainian guys. It was only like an hour long flight, but what was the worst bit about it? We'd been competing in a really hot area of Ukraine.
Speaker 4:It was absolutely baking and we'd been in the same T-shirt every single day. We were there. We'd been there for a week and we're talking like he's like 190 kilos, like 420 pounds, same t-shirt the whole week, competed, then put the t-shirt back on every single day and I had to sit next to him on a flight just the two of us and I was pretty large myself then as well and, um, yeah, I was just like, of all the people I could have sat next to, he's got to get the extension thing to fit around him and just sweating all over me. It was absolutely disgusting.
Speaker 9:I've been on two flights European flights where they've run out of seatbelt extenders. Yeah, because they're all so big.
Speaker 4:I've never had to use one, even at my fatest.
Speaker 1:Just saying that, just putting it out there. I mean, how big do you have to be to get a seatbelt extender? Brian has to. How big do you have to be to get a seatbelt extender? Brian has to?
Speaker 9:Yeah, you were trying to throw him on the airbags.
Speaker 7:I would actually say it depends on the airline.
Speaker 6:Because even I've had an extender.
Speaker 1:But on a smaller airline. Is that like a badge of honour when you get that seatbelt extender as a strongman? No, it's embarrassing.
Speaker 6:I don't know if that's a badge of honour.
Speaker 8:Everyone's looking at you, the worst ones is you want the stealth, I need a belt extender and you go I need one. Okay, we need this guy.
Speaker 4:Yeah we get an extender. It's like Do you not think it's worse when they try and hand it to you when you don't even need it, though I've had that a couple of times that's up in the bin.
Speaker 5:You put it on your shoulder.
Speaker 8:You put it on your shoulder.
Speaker 6:Can you show?
Speaker 1:him, your fucking abs yeah yeah, look around me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, he's under there somewhere.
Speaker 1:But, darren, obviously we're here in Las Vegas for a reason, and it's the first Giants Live Las Vegas and this we're a day out from actually, well, the time this goes to air we are a day out. So we've got the best of best athletes coming in for this event a superstar lineup, j-rock's first strongman event, so I'm excited for him to see it. Obviously, he's seen and met a lot of the guys that have come into the gym. A lot of the guests we have here have trained in the gym throughout the last couple of years. So now to get the role reversal for me to now encourage these guys, get my, my fan, my, my, my current members behind a lot of the people that you know, for example, evan has got to meet. He's been to the gym many times. Um, they're all excited.
Speaker 1:They're all excited. They're all messaging me. Everybody is pumped up for this event and whisper in las vegas is getting now into excitement. So, where you are, let's talk about the event.
Speaker 9:Well, I mean, the thing is about this event and there is a few across the year where it's literally the top ten in the world. Simple as that. Yeah, you get a guy that's injured but arguably, you know, whoever wins this show probably will win World's Strongest man. He's going gonna be one of the guys. You know what I mean. And you've got the top three in the world there. Evan been number three, you've got tom number one and mitch hooper and these guys I sort of see they're the guys that are going to pass that title around in the next few years. Yeah, yeah, if you, if you look at strongman probably like most sports, probably like bodybuilding you see a good guy coming from like five years before. You know you see him coming in and evans built his way up there to number three.
Speaker 9:Hooper came in pretty quick to be honest, it was a bit unnatural, but uh, and tom tom, you could tell tom was gonna be brilliant in the early days. So it's a real treat. And the main thing for me was, as a promoter um, you know, without being sort of cheesy like, I want that fan experience. We always try and do that. We don. We have the best lighting, sound, the best sound and the best fan experience. And I think with Vegas we had to really do that times two, because I think in Vegas people expect that, the glitz and the glamour. So what we tried to do is we're very lucky in the UK We've been going for probably nearly 15 years in the arena, tour and everything, everything sells out. It's a big success. It's a successful business.
Speaker 9:We've come to america before and done it probably how we used to in the uk, like 15 years ago, where it's a bit more car parky, if you like, whereas this is the first you know actual. This is how we do it in the uk. I've got the same presenters, I've got the same cameras, it's the same live stream quality, the bells and whistles. So people are in for a real treat and if we can replicate that across America, that's what I'm wanting to do. And there's no corners cut. It's not a lesser version. This is it, and these guys will tell you they've been training very hard for this. This is going to be a real dogfight on Saturday night.
Speaker 4:Well, I think it's a big moment, isn't it? It's a big moment First big Giants live, especially in Vegas as well. It definitely could be the turning point of the sport, really.
Speaker 9:I think if we would have tried to cut any corners, it would have been obvious, because people expect now that's a Giants live. I want people to turn the television on and go. It's Giants Live.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 9:And, honestly, when we've done it before, we've had great shows, great athletes, but not glitzy enough, and I think now Strongman deserves that Every show should have that treatment. You know, other people are doing a great job as well. You know, I'm not just saying I'm doing it, but Strongman's moved up a real big level. The guys big level. The guys could have more money. Now, you know, the the fan base is is massive, even for the guys out of the top. Yeah, and, and that's the thing, it's giving the guys the respect that they deserve, putting them on a platform. And you know, I always think it's only a big deal if you make it a big deal. You know these guys want to come out to fireworks and, yeah, you know, make it look spectacular, yeah, so you know, that's, that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 9:So on Saturday night you'll definitely see that.
Speaker 2:And that's what Vegas is all about the big lights. You know the production, and I think it's perfect for Vegas. You know we've had this huge growth period right now in Vegas, where you know it's like we got the Raiders in, we got the Knights. You know all these things that have happened. You know for the city that we previously didn't have all these sports. You know all we had was fighting for the longest time, and so all these type activations coming in, and I think it's the perfect location with Vegas. Right, we're a heavy tourist market, you know as well. Right, but all the biggest events in the world are here now. So you know how, about the biggest guys in the world as well?
Speaker 1:right.
Speaker 2:And girls and you know, I'm really excited to see. You know, like flex said, this will be my first time, um, and sometimes I think to myself it's like I've met. I've met so many of you guys and everybody's so polite and and and gracious and I look forward to seeing the switch turn on when you guys turn into animals, right, because I like that, like I'm a big mindset type person and like I work out with flex and like he's the nicest guy, but when he's in the gym he's not.
Speaker 2:There's a there's something that happens, you know, and and I like that you know, because I'm a fighter and I have that switch too you know when I want to turn it on and I like seeing it live and I like seeing that, like you know everything all out, you know, uh, and I look forward to that.
Speaker 9:I mean just to explain to people that are watching that aren't massive strongman fans what what you've got is. You've got the Giants live. You know, rubber stamp on it. That makes it all fancy, if you like. And then also we've got the world dead of championships. Now people obviously have been talking about we've had Eddie Hall did 500 kilos back in 17, which is unbelievable.
Speaker 7:What's the weight? Oh, 1,102 pounds.
Speaker 9:All right.
Speaker 7:Okay, oh, 1,102 pounds, all right, okay, when I point I need the conversion. Don't point at me bro, Just for the fans to know how much was it again 1,102 pounds 1,102 pounds and again anybody
Speaker 8:who's seen?
Speaker 9:that deadlift Also amazing, you know, and no one really believed that he could do it all, but I would say not many people believed he could do it. Obviously he did, which is the main thing. And then Hapthor did 501 during lockdown. Obviously the shows weren't on Again, you know, massive lift. So people have been talking about this 505. There's probably, I think, no disrespect to anybody else three names that people have been banding about, which is Ivan Makarov, hicksey and probably Raul no Heinle for pulling that. And then last year at the World Deadlift Championships, this lady went and pulled in pounds. She pulled 700. 700 pounds.
Speaker 7:She pulled 700 pounds, so that's 200, and kilos guys, so it's 318.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable. So obviously Lucy's going to look. So that's 200 and kilos guys. So it's 318. Unbelievable.
Speaker 9:Unbelievable. So obviously Lucy's going to look at doing a lot more than that and the jump that she's going to make actually, if you compare it to the guys, is like Pound for pound. Well for a world record to jump up. She wants to go for 325.
Speaker 3:325, yeah 716.
Speaker 9:But if you look at that for a world record, jump in a percentage wise, take it across anything you want. That is a big jump, it's huge.
Speaker 7:It's a big, big jump. Yeah, it's huge. If you beat a record by more than 1% to 2%, you're killing it In anything you look at. In anything you look at.
Speaker 9:So obviously we don't want the deadlift. It's not just about the deadlift. That's very important, especially to the powerlifters and everything in this world. I think people want to see that go now, because it's been tried quite a few times. And yeah, and also you've got the big show. Favourites, in all fairness, are probably Evan Mitchell, hooper and Tom Stortman for the overall show. Again, no disrespect, we've got some great guys Eddie and everybody here, but they've been winning everything. That's a fact over the last couple of years. So it's not just one-dimensional this show. There's a competition within a competition. We've got Ian Bibby coming over and he seems to be a fan favourite Just broke the world log record. People assume that guy isn't fast. He is.
Speaker 7:He's fast already. He's a weirdish thing, he's fast, I found that out in Manchester.
Speaker 9:He's 200 kilos. I was like, oh, he's just a big 100. But it's like what?
Speaker 1:a guy. You were telling me a story I know I want to stay in the giant's life, but kind of just going out About Ian Bailey. You were telling me, the day that he brought the record you were literally training him how to do a log lift. Training him to correct his form a little bit.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so he used to. For the guys that do log lifts, really, really, you don't want to use your biceps to curl the log round. And his biceps are what? The 28 inch, the biggest biceps ever. And he was just using biceps. His biceps were sore, so His legs Just using his biceps.
Speaker 6:Yeah, his legs were bigger than my legs.
Speaker 9:And so the week of the show, like the Thursday, me and him in the gym changing his clean technique, which is just the weirdest thing. So this guy's pressed more than anyone's ever pressed ever, and we're changing his technique on the Thursday.
Speaker 3:And again, that's weird, unbelievable.
Speaker 9:That's just weird.
Speaker 8:and again that's weird, you know, but he's just baby is such a specimen, it's just unbelievable. Yeah, you got to see him in person too, yeah, I've seen it.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, videos, pictures, they don't do them. Just. I've heard a lot about this I got lost. I've heard a lot about I got lost, trying to find myself yeah, around him.
Speaker 1:But listen, ladies. First, lucy, how are you feeling? You know, going into this, this show, you know a couple of days before, but uh, nonetheless, you've got a big task ahead of you I feel pretty excited.
Speaker 3:To be fair, I'm, like um, pretty confident that I can pull more. When I when I pulled 700 pounds last year it moved so quickly that I I'm not really scared to pull anything heavier. I think probably 325, going for 325 kilos, which was 716 pounds. I think I'm probably underselling myself a little bit. But at the same time I want to be able to bring the sport up and I want the girls to catch me up and to be able to put on a show so that we can bring the girls out and actually put on a show out here and push the sport, because our side of the sport is growing a lot faster than I think people thought it would. So it would be nice to encourage other girls, but at the minute if I pull the free 25, I'll be 25 kilos ahead of anybody else in the world.
Speaker 1:Which is a long way ahead. I don't think you need it. Let the girls catch up. You said that, but I've had quite a lot of grief over this Because, like, obviously we're trying to run a business as well.
Speaker 9:As you know, this is a financial thing involved and a lot of the girls wanted to come. So I sort of said, right, if anyone can challenge Lucy, even within like 10 kilos of that, I'll buy you a ticket to come out here. And the reality of it is it's no disrespect, but Lucy is just so far ahead and I think people will start to push you eventually.
Speaker 3:But the minute I think definitely there are girls coming through and I do think that the girls do deserve to come and they will fight for their space. But at the end of the day, our sport is nowhere near where the men's sport's at, so we've got to be patient and wait our time and just prove what we can do. And until we have more people lifting the same sort of weights and stuff, we can't really put on a show as well as other people. And I think it's it's a shame because there are. There are girls that did deserve to, um, to come out and pull and they've done really well, like in the last year, like there's two girls that have hit 300 in competition and, um, they really they. They had the opportunity to probably come, they were probably the next ones really.
Speaker 3:But at the same time this is business and I understand that and sometimes I feel a bit guilty for pushing the record on quite far, but at the same time I'm not going to hold myself back because I know I've got a lot more to come I'd like to put in there.
Speaker 6:I mean, it's evolution of sport. So you know, if you go back and talk about Eddie's lift, he set a standard and that standard has been chased now since he did it. So that's all you're doing. You're setting a blueprint for the women to follow.
Speaker 5:And Eddie pushed it just like Lucy it's not only that, but when Eddie pulled the 500 originally, it's not just raising the bar for chasing that one rep world record, but it's not just lowering. It's not just lower, uh, raising the bar for chasing that one rep world record, but it's also raising the bar for all the other athletes. Because since eddie's pulled that, how many of us now have pulled a thousand pounds, 455 kilos?
Speaker 9:it's just constantly making everybody get better. Well, the year after he pulled, after he pulled 500 and most of you guys were there the amount of people that pulled a thousand in the world at one of my shows, it doubled in one night. Seriously, it went from like 11 to like 22 23 in one night.
Speaker 5:Yeah exactly it. Just it forces everybody to grow, everybody to get stronger, work harder, and it makes the sport better and I know that's exactly what the girls say to me.
Speaker 3:They're like, I think, now that I've done the 300, I've done the 700 pounds, that means that they now believe that it's doable and that means that people now can look at it and be like, yeah, this can happen, and I can hopefully keep pushing people on.
Speaker 4:I think the non-PC answer at the moment is it's not a competition at the moment. Lucy's ahead of everyone else and it's up to them to catch up, but they will do Exactly that. It's like you were all saying Once the bar's been raised, it makes everyone else stop at a step. Everyone's got to be going for it, and they need to as well.
Speaker 9:I sort of feel like just having Lucy here, and she was here last year as well. We did it over in Cardiff Like right, this is so impressive. We've got to show everybody this and I think that is a big move because the reality of it is, you girls weren't in the big arenas and we've done a couple of Giants lives now for the girls and they've got a great crowd.
Speaker 3:Yeah definitely, it's definitely put the strong women out on the map Because, to be honest, if I hadn't have texted to say, can I come and pull £700 at the World deadlift champs, I wouldn't have been there.
Speaker 3:Like and like sometimes, like I'd like I had to put myself out there to you to be able to show like that it can be done, and I think if that's kind of helped not in a big-headed way, but it has helped the sport grow because I've I've put myself in that position to be like this is what we can do, like and we are here and we want to be seen, and then it's kind of helped develop the Britain's Strongest Women shows and stuff like that. I think it's been a really positive experience, to be honest, for me in the last couple of years.
Speaker 9:It's all about appetite, isn't it? It's all about who's going to buy tickets, who's going to watch this, and we've proved now that people do want to watch the girls do this.
Speaker 4:How many of the girls have pulled 300 since you did? There's been another three or four, haven't there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think Claire and Summer have done it in comp, and then you've got Rebecca. Roberts has done it in training and Olga has now done it in training.
Speaker 4:Okay, and how many had done it prior to you? No one.
Speaker 3:No one had pulled it prior to me pulling 700.
Speaker 1:So it's already happening.
Speaker 6:It's already happening.
Speaker 1:How many years ago was it when somebody pulled close to a thousand? After that thousand was pulled?
Speaker 9:I know there's a lot of people in that 900 range, but then when that thousand pounds was pulled, Well, to put it in perspective, when me and Terry first started competing, I remember I pulled 400 and Terry, you were like 440. When I pulled 400, I knew everybody that pulled 400. Yes, we're a bit older than a lot of these guys, but same age as you, I think.
Speaker 8:But what I'm saying is when.
Speaker 9:I pulled 400, I knew everyone that pulled 400. There was a short list when you pulled 440, literally you could have rang everybody if you pulled 440. Whereas now I don't even really know everyone that's pulled 1,000 pounds anymore. No, which makes there's so many of them.
Speaker 4:Like 1,000000 is the new, which is obviously. Well, there is a few that are like almost just hobby lifters, almost like Instagram lifters that are pulling £1,000, like genuinely and they don't even compete.
Speaker 9:No, God, no, we were all out there on the floor doing it.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 9:And that's a lot. Again, it's a massive jump yeah.
Speaker 2:If I could ask maybe it's ignorance and not understanding but are the female lifts the same as the male? So exactly the same competition? Yeah.
Speaker 9:Same bar, same you know.
Speaker 2:Same. Set up everything, right, okay.
Speaker 1:You were hoping it was going to be lighter, because you wanted to try something, didn't you? No, I'm just wondering. I don't know if there was differences in the lifts.
Speaker 2:That's a good question.
Speaker 8:That's the beauty, about the weight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, 200 pounds is 200 pounds. The weight is the weight is the weight.
Speaker 9:And if you saw a guy doing 325 in the gym, you'd go wow, he's strong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do you know what I mean? That's a fact of it, you know.
Speaker 1:That's a good deadlift.
Speaker 9:That's you know who's doing that.
Speaker 3:Most gyms there's nobody doing that the gym that can pull over 300, and it's an exceptionally strong gym as well. Yeah, it's ridiculous. So like the 300 kilo mark is like what most men are looking to pull, yeah, yeah, and then I've kind of exceeded it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how many guys left when you pulled out 200? That's my question.
Speaker 3:I have entered a strong man show before, when I was still coming through, because there wasn't as many strong women shows and men started pulling out because I entered the show, so I ended up not competing Unbelievable.
Speaker 2:So it's like nah. Got him shook, you've got to push yourself. Is competing as I was, like nah got him, got him shut.
Speaker 4:yeah, you gotta push yourself they didn't want that smug big men with fragile egos that's basically how I got into the sport.
Speaker 3:So I used to see like tell, like training in the corner and stuff and be like I think I can do that and there was a couple of guys, like there was a couple of guys that he used to train with and I'd be like, if they can do that, I can do it and I'd go and give it a go.
Speaker 4:To be fair, you were stronger than them, yeah on the kind of theme of deadlift.
Speaker 1:I want to talk to Hicksey. Obviously you're one of the guys in contention and talked about for this big deadlift. How are you feeling? My friend going in.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I feel fantastic If you compare to last year. Last year's prep I mean we had Worlds in April. I went home and I decided I'll train for the deadlift. I had a pretty good prep but two and a half weeks out before the show I tore my hamstring. I was quite quiet about it. Obviously Darren was aware. A few of my close friends were aware. It was that bad that the seven days before I couldn't even deadlift 250. So I turned up anyway and, yeah, I pulled 470 and won the show and it was a 20 kilo PB and I got 505 to my knee. So you know, if I just reflect alone on that prep, compared to where I'm at right now, I have to have a better day on Saturday, which means there's a very good chance I'm lifting it.
Speaker 9:Again. Perspective that puts him in the top three deadlifts just about ever. You know what I mean Like once you're up to 470, it's like three or four people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that is like three or four people yeah, yeah, but no, no injuries right now no, I am.
Speaker 6:I am really good too, everything's healed up.
Speaker 1:Are you feeling that this uh rack is going to be broken? I feel very confident.
Speaker 6:But yeah, yeah and I don't often say that I'm quite quiet I'm quite quiet about my abilities, but I'm realistic and if I think I can do it, then yeah let a serious thing.
Speaker 2:I see you're training to fight the mountain down there. I saw that when you came in. What's that all about?
Speaker 6:Maybe we can make a joke of it. It's just Hathor's T-shirt that he sells at his gym. I wear it quite often because it's quite a funny thing to wear.
Speaker 2:I thought it was great. When you walked out, I was like I like this guy People do ask me about it.
Speaker 6:I'm like, no, I'm not going to fight him, I'm not stupid there's big money in that.
Speaker 1:A lot of strong men are crossing over to fights now.
Speaker 6:I want to do a two man against him, not on my own who would be your partner in crime in that, by the way? I'll just take Darren, come on mate.
Speaker 1:Darren could jump on his shoulders to be fair.
Speaker 4:The two of you are about the same height as me, two little Jack Russells going at it.
Speaker 3:They're seeing it, right I?
Speaker 6:will say this you know it's been from a, from a personal perspective. You know, I've had Eddie reach out to me, thor's reached out to me quite a few times throughout the year showing me support for this, so it's been really nice. You know, like they're both, you know, seeming very genuine that they want me to do it, so it's been quite nice from them both.
Speaker 9:They're the two guys that know how much effort you're putting, because they've done it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, I was going to say.
Speaker 3:I think that's the thing. I don't think people sometimes realise how much going for the world records really affects your body and stuff the whole way through prep, and that there's not many people like there's no one in my position that knows and they keep saying to me oh, just break the record by one kilo and that. And I'm like every time I put myself through this, I'm putting my body through like so much shit, like I need to be careful, like I don't want to miss out on that and stuff and it, and it is like injury territory because basically you're doing stuff that no one's ever done before.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, I mean, I get a lot of. I've had a lot of, I wouldn't say, hate online but, like you get a lot of people thinking they know they know better, so I pulled a 465 kilo deadlift.
Speaker 6:Uh, for my last session I wasn't fully happy with it. There were a few issues that I addressed afterwards. But you know like I had like a 485, 490 on me on that day, which for me, for a gym lift, that's a win, because I always pull better in a show, because I always have part of me when I'm training, that's holding back because I'm scared of hurting myself again I was gonna ask that too.
Speaker 2:Like in your prep, like, are you pushing yourself to that max? Or it's actually like you're there showtime and you don't even know you might go bigger than you actually expected, right like?
Speaker 6:or you should be done right. Yeah, no, that is. You know, that's nail on the head.
Speaker 9:I've literally um haven't trained to max all year see, I feel like um that I have a macro is definitely one of the best delifters on the planet and I feel like he just lifts too heavy all the time. Yeah, everything's like heavy, heavy and you've got to no one. I know, no one cares what you do in the gym. It's a bit like you know I've been a good box and get in the ring and getting beaten. You know what I mean. It's like people want to see people remember saturday night, right, um, but so I I think graham isn't like that. I think you're quite clever like that. You hold back a lot massively.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know I'm not. I don't do a lift for the instagram ever.
Speaker 9:Really it's like I might I might, I might set that at his knee for a laugh I've got a question like this is like I've had this with loads of people, especially with bibby, so obviously you were talking about like everyone said. I'll just break it by a kilo. But do you not think like if it's in you, you should do it Because you don't know what's going to happen next week? Do you know what I mean? I don't know.
Speaker 7:There's two philosophies really on that. When you get towards there's, yeah, you let it fly because you never know when you're going to get back when you're early in your career. Cedruna showed up and beat the record nearly every time he went to do a log. Yeah, I mean like every single time he probably broke the log record. What 30, 40 times.
Speaker 9:He had it for like 10 years, I think yeah, but he probably never maxed out, did he?
Speaker 4:no, he was probably capable of. He never used his legs either no, yeah no.
Speaker 9:But it's like Bibby's now saying to me what's Bibby? I think he's like 33, 34, and he's like he's had a couple of times of training where it's like I don't feel quite as good as I used to. So he's saying now his next log he wants to really because I don't think his world record log was his max.
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 9:No, it wasn't, because I don't want to go over the edge and if you have a serious injury when everything's tuned like that, and I think it's the same. How old are you now, graham?
Speaker 6:39 this year.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so it's your time to do this, isn't it? You know what I mean. You've got to get it out of you haven't you, because there's going to be a time where, like me and Terry, where you start falling apart.
Speaker 4:That is exactly, exactly what happens and you don't even see it coming. Literally one minute you're like you're good, you have a little injury and then it never comes back again, like I had a bit of time off when my son was born and I came back and felt like I was good and I was training well, and I was never quite the same again, ever. It never fully came back and it wasn't like I saw it coming, it wasn't like anything big happened. I literally, just one minute, I was one of the top guys in the and then the next minute I was a guy that was just making up the numbers at World's Strongest man. It literally was like that and yeah, it can happen. It can happen. Mine was sort of probably around your sort of point in life, you know, in Korea, although I probably started a bit earlier than you did.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you had more mileage on More miles on the clock, but it does happen, it does, but it does happen, it does happen. So, yeah, sometimes you just gotta lay it out there. I wish I had there was. A few times I look back and think I probably could have deadlifted more than I did. Yeah, but I never put it out there because just didn't get the opportunity to.
Speaker 1:Terry as one of the legends in the sport. Everybody knows what you've done. You know the OG I mean.
Speaker 4:I not to you make you sound old. I'm old, just not as old as Nick watch you on.
Speaker 1:Christmas time is such a staple for World's Strongest man in the UK so we used to watch yourself just put the work in, reach the podiums. Now you're kind of in the position you're in now. You're doing a lot more media and hosting. Do you kind of put your arm around some of the up and coming guys and be like hey, listen, I've done it this way. I kind of paved the way. I don't feel you should be doing that, like there's maybe a little bit.
Speaker 4:I mean I don't like to get too involved because a lot of the guys it has changed a bit, a lot of them have got like coaches and people advising them and I certainly wouldn't want to on anyone's toes because I think it's that's important, it's, you know, the same with bodybuilding, if you're, if you've got a coach, you've got to listen to your coach and not get other people's opinions, because the coach has got a direction for you to go in and you know yeah and you don't want too many people trying to influence that.
Speaker 4:But I do every now and then or sort of try and just drop a little little hint or a little sort of bit of information in there to try and sort of guide guys. And just you know, I mean I've probably been through most of the things that they're going through at some point in my career. So if I can help any of them in any way, you know of course I would. It's just you know whether they'll be receptive to that or not. I don't know, like some would, some wouldn't, and I think it's like I said. It's like I said I just wouldn't want to tread on anyone's toes if they've got coaches and people around them. But if they came to me and asked for sure, I'd like to try and help them.
Speaker 7:Yeah, but half these guys coaching have no idea how to compete and that's a massive problem with the coaches that are in this.
Speaker 4:I actually remember chatting with you even, nick, like when I was sort of getting to that point where I was starting to get a bit older and perhaps my body was starting to suffer a bit, and like coming to you for advice about, like, how I should do things in terms of what can I do at this age where my body is starting to fall apart to still, like just cling on that bit longer, and you gave me some good advice. I took it away and went with it. So I think it's, um, it's important for you know to get those bits of information, but I certainly wouldn't want to just was that advice going to bodybuilding?
Speaker 4:yeah, just Just give up.
Speaker 1:You've passed it, you've had enough, just give up One thing I'll say about everybody on the table you and I have shared a stage not literally the same stage but I take my hat off to you in being at the top of Strongman and then just saying you know what I'm going to just start at the peg one and go into a whole new sport and peg one and go into a whole new sport, and it's a completely different sport. It's not based on strength, it's based on aesthetics and visual uh judging. So that was probably a hard thing for you to to go from one you know lifting style to then going into rap sets, drop sets and stuff it took a long time of um, actually, even though I knew that I needed to change the way I was doing things.
Speaker 4:It's hard to like get out of that, that habit when you're in the gym of like always trying to lift heavy, you know, and then sort of try and then take that away and go right. Yes, I need to lift heavy, but I need to do everything properly and really like feel it's working the right areas and doing doing the right things, rather than just using everything you can to lift as much weight as you can. I mean, obviously, a lot of people that have sort of not done either sport or have done one perhaps don't understand how different they are, but they are very, very different, although they're both lifting weights. The only thing I would say and this is the the big similarity is to be very good at strongman or to be as good as you can be at bodybuilding, I think even low level. You've got to still be in it.
Speaker 4:But it's that mindset of like everything you get during a prepper for a competition with strongman. You're in pain all the time, you're suffering, you don't want to get up and train. Some days You're just like I just want to sit on my bum, do nothing and just chill out. But you have to force yourself to get up and do it. And with a bodybuilder, obviously you're starving, tired, hungry. You've got to force yourself to get up and do it, even when you don't want to. And I think that's the big similarity, that mindset to sort of say, right, I might not want to do this, but I have to do this. And that's the big similarity. And I think anyone that's sort of got that mindset could probably do either Discipline, you know it's discipline yeah.
Speaker 2:This is just discipline and consistency, and even though the worlds are different, it's like there's still this connection right. It's like you know, every single person at this table, and I assume that you guys probably work out with other bodybuilders right In the gym and those sorts of things. I'm sure they're trying to, you know, come around you guys and do a few. So I mean, is that a thing where it's like a lot of bodybuilders are still kind of in your world or they're looking to maybe transfer over?
Speaker 4:I think a lot of the strongmen I mean certainly not all of them, but a lot of them came from bodybuilding. They started off as bodybuilders and were like you know what I'm probably better at the strength stuff and they moved down that direction. That's the exact path that I did.
Speaker 1:I left. I apologize, evan. I said there's only two on the table. I meant two in front of me. You have also shared the stage as a bodybuilder before you got into Strongman, and I'll leave the floor with that.
Speaker 5:Please. Well, this was around the time where I got hurt and I had left WWE as a pro wrestler and I ballooned up to almost 180, 185 kilograms 180 is four, four or two, wow yeah, 180, 185 kilograms, 180s, 4.
Speaker 8:4.2, wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and that was all bad weight. That was no exercise, that was no clean eating, nothing like that. And I made the decision that, once I got the green light from my doctor to go back and exercise again, I wanted to try bodybuilding because I hated what I saw in the mirror every day, I hated what I did to myself. So I lost like 140, 150 pounds, shed that all off and then I ended up getting on stage. I only did one show, but it was the Bev Francis in New York Great show.
Speaker 1:Yep. Shout out to Steve.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that was really cool. It was an awesome experience For me. Mentally it was a win because I proved to myself that I could do it. And it was absolute hell, but I did it. How? So? I'm a fat kid, so the diet was terrible.
Speaker 5:You like to eat. Well, sucks to be you. But yeah, after I got done with that, I wanted to try out strength sports like powerlifting and strongman, and I ended up finding strongman first, and after about a week and a half to two weeks of training, I just completely fell in love with it and I said I'm going to pursue this until I'm world's strongest man.
Speaker 1:And I've been doing it ever since. How long ago was that?
Speaker 5:Oh God, that was seven, eight years ago now. That was a long time ago. It's not that long really, when you think about it.
Speaker 1:It was long for me not for you.
Speaker 6:You've been around for 300 years.
Speaker 5:Eddie.
Speaker 1:I see you in the corner there. You're not a quiet man and we're making our way down to you. The singing strong man the guy that I've really spent some time with our world's strongest man had some great laughs.
Speaker 8:A you know, spend some time with our world's strongest man had some great laughs and a few a few sing songs to it.
Speaker 6:This guy's got some pipes, yeah, a little little sample them what you're going to sing on the show.
Speaker 9:Is it not a secret? It's a secret, it's a secret.
Speaker 8:And by the time you see this, don't worry.
Speaker 1:But we've all got to see including myself, incredibly talented man over there. You sent me the link to this at Royal Albert Hall and having to see this iconic I mean everyone knows Royal Albert Hall in the UK, right, the best of best have sung there, orchestras have been there and then for you to have that chance to get in there and pull out the guitar and sing and everybody was singing with you, man, that must have been incredible.
Speaker 8:Oh man, just like never thought I'd be singing at a venue like that, let alone lifting weight. So I get to do both of my favorite things and uh, yeah, it's, it's unreal, and every show, um, I'm improving. So it's like, um, I'm getting stronger as an athlete, but but then I'm also showing people another side to us. We've all got talents. I'm just one that gets to use it.
Speaker 6:It's part of your personality, though, isn't it? You like to sing, so you get into it I mean the audience that night.
Speaker 9:I mean even me as a promoter. Honestly, everyone thinks I'm masterminded, that I didn't expect us to be in Royal Albert Hall. If I'm totally honest, like what, not many years before we're in car parks and then we're in there and what it was. The absolute truth of it is there was a guy who worked there was a big strongman fan and eugene sandow uh, did the first ever. It was called this it wasn't called world strongest man, but so much similar to that and did it there and it was like bodybuilding and there was some cardio, there was bar bending and he did it with, uh, sir arthur conan doyle, and that was the first ever one. And they asked us to go in 150 years later to sort of like reenact it. So that was, that was what we tried to do try to have traditional events, everything like that. And then the first meeting I went to, I got a really bad feel like these guys don't actually want us here.
Speaker 3:They're used to Adele and Adele and John and all this Robbie Williams, yeah, and I think they just thought I don't know, they didn't really look.
Speaker 9:The guy one of the guys that worked there was a big fan, so I thought I don't know, it didn't seem like we were getting any sort of respect. Then we did the show and obviously Eddie sang and just such a fantastic night. It was a great show overall. Bibby, Bibby did the world record axle and then the manager came down afterwards and just went I get it. We broke the record for the most noise ever made in there. It's huge Decibels.
Speaker 9:I mean everybody's played there Everybody, and that's the low disc and then afterwards the manager came down and he went, I get it, he goes, let's just go to a contract for three years and that says we have a really good you know like it's. It's like our sort of flagship show now and I don't think no disrespect to me, they didn't, I don't know, I don't think they thought we're going to be there for as long as we have been and now it's like that is our thing. Now you know we go there and for me, as a promoter, I'm so proud to be there. But these guys absolutely love competing there.
Speaker 4:It's quite an interesting tie, isn't it? With the bodybuilding and the strongman. What were you just talking?
Speaker 3:about.
Speaker 4:Because the Sando is the trophy for winning the Olympia but.
Speaker 1:But he was actually like a bodybuilder and strongman at the time in the Royal Albert Hall. So, yeah, that's why you were trying to get me to come out right, so I can put a fig leaf over my.
Speaker 4:Colin actually tried to convince me to do that one year when I was like I think I was getting ready for a show or I'd just done one, and he was like will you do like this posing like Really Like in some leopard print.
Speaker 9:Yeah, we got an idea. You know we'll just cherry up as Eugene Sandow and I was like that sounds terrible.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, it was awkward enough getting on stage. I don't want to do it there. No, Jesus.
Speaker 1:Well, we got a lot of different events. I know we just spoke about two. We spoke about the deadlift and the log lift. But what are you excited about from this weekend, with certain athletes pulling?
Speaker 9:um, obviously I'm excited if someone gets to 505. Um lucy, I've got a lot of confidence in it to break that record. I don't want to jinx it, but I just think that she's on her own level and and and I'm sure I'll be proved right on saturday night we've got a great range of events. We've got a traditional dumbbell, got some really cool bespoke dumbbells, made 100 kilos for reps. We've got a car walk, which is a great event because it sort of puts in perspective how heavy the yoke is. We've got the wrecking ball hold, which is a fairly new event in Strongman. We've had it in for a year or so and it's really like become a a fan favorite, so we've shipped those across the uk.
Speaker 1:Can you explain the the car walk and explain the wrecking ball? So for the fans that have never seen this before, so car walk.
Speaker 9:Basically it's a it's a 500 kilo car with a bar in the middle. The guy gets in it and the funny thing is these are like old bws and these guys look as wide as the actual car when they're in there. You know, it looks like it's a fake car because the guys are so big, like the.
Speaker 1:Flintstones. Yeah, basically. Yeah, eddie, you're looking forward to that event. Can't wait, I know, can't wait Getting on the road.
Speaker 9:And then Wrecking Ball Hold. Basically, the guys are up on a platform with this huge steel ball, weighs nearly 300 kilos and it's on a chain. They lift it between their legs and hold it as long as they can. And it's one of those events when the first lift is it's like not a lot going on, but it's when the pain sets in, it's like a torture item, you know.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah it is, and your hands hurt for about like two weeks afterwards. Yeah, well, that's the thing with the wrecking ball holders.
Speaker 5:At first glance it's like, okay, it's testing your grip to see how strong you can hold on to that. That's not what it is at all.
Speaker 8:That's not what it is at all. It's your pain threshold.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 9:That's a mental event. You think literally all my hands are going to hurt and that's it, but it's everything.
Speaker 5:It's also your whole body.
Speaker 3:It's the weirdest thing, yeah.
Speaker 9:It's actually not nice to be fair. No, it's not, I've never had like forearm like pump and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:I don't really do the bodybuilding stuff, but the forearm pump afterwards as well was like unreal. I the next day, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I imagine the grip strength has just got to be just something on another level for you guys. You know it's like I was surprised.
Speaker 7:I was surprised because I started training a couple of months ago. It's different, isn't?
Speaker 9:it. Yeah, it's a real good test of strength.
Speaker 7:I was like holy cow, I wasn't even going that heavy.
Speaker 2:I 225 and it's not fun.
Speaker 1:I've seen that, samson one is that World's Strongest man.
Speaker 2:Let's try it.
Speaker 8:No, that's not in this one.
Speaker 9:I mean, that's a great event as well.
Speaker 8:That would be great here in.
Speaker 7:Vegas. That's probably my greatest disappointment. I never got to do.
Speaker 9:Well, it's still there. You never know. We have to ship a lot of stuff across. It's a huge piece of apparatus but maybe next year, I think, we'll bring it across.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that, but first I want to speak to Evan. Evan, first of all, congratulations on making the podium. You and I spoke prior to the World Strongest man. You said that is the goal, yep, and now coming into Giants, see, you Got a lot of incredible fan following. Let's not beat around the bush there. A lot of people from my gym that you've got to meet that are going to be watching you this week. What can people expect from every single time?
Speaker 5:I think that a lot of people that show up knowing me or even not knowing me, just because I'm an athlete that wears their heart on their sleeve. So you'd be able to tell how much I really care about this. This is a really important competition to me for a lot of reasons. On surface level, I'm an athlete that just I want to win everything that I do. I don't go to a competition if I don't believe that I can win, and I compete a lot, so that should say something. So that's surface level.
Speaker 5:Um, there's also a level deeper where I want to continue to accumulate as many giants live first place wins as possible, and if I win Vegas, when I win Vegas, that will be number seven for me. That puts me two away from the all time world record. But then there's a level underneath that too, where one of my biggest goals with my career is I. I love the sport of strong man with everything that I have, and I want to be able to help it grow in the United States to the point that it gets to compete with the UK. I mean, everybody at this table has competed in giant shows or strongman shows in the UK and they're selling out arenas of 6, 8, 10, 12,000 people.
Speaker 5:Sold out, sold out Like three layers of stadium seats, and I really want americans to understand that. I want them to embrace it. I want to make that something that happens here, and I feel like this show giants live vegas could be the very first step we take towards making that a reality evan actually won the last ever giants live. We did, yeah, america yeah, the giants live north american champions in 2019.
Speaker 7:this is the title first time.
Speaker 9:Yeah, kind of defending my title, yeah I mean, it's just getting back to what I said. Obviously, like you set these things up, but it's all about the athletes and the characters people want to see. You know, evan's a big character in the sport. He wears his hat on his sleeve and people like that, people like to connect, even with the singing and everything like that. Everyone's got their own thing and I think it's putting that personality forward, which these guys are doing that now, and I just think we just need to get the foot in the door over here and I think the athletes and the production will do the rest. It's there, it's ready, it's boxed up, it just needs presenting in the right way for people to take it on board and then the sky's the limit.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it is. And is that like a big kind of pressure on you guys now, social media, filming that kind of stuff to build your audience and know and those sort of things is obviously we're in this, you know, social media period of time. I don't think it's lost on any of us really is it?
Speaker 4:no, it's not like what's happening with the sport and has done over the last sort of 10 years. It's not lost on any of us. We've all been part of that journey from where it was to where it is now, in different ways and, um, I think we all sort of feel like we've got some obligation almost to help try and push it to that next level, especially even for Lucy, with the women's side she's like the trailblazer at the moment and guys like Evan you know, obviously he's American, this is in America. You know it's an important thing for him to go out there and put on a show and I'm sure he will because he always does, does, um. But yeah, I don't think that that side of it's lost on any of us. We all know that we've we're playing our part in making something that's big.
Speaker 1:Yeah because, for probably like us three here, we come from the og world of. You know hoodies and you know sweatshirts and no filming. Right now, the the world has evolved to tripods and filming literally everything, but that's part of the brand, that's part of the business, and every one of you guys on and girls, have youtube pages and it's the. That's the connection to the fans, because they know everything. I'm, you know, going to my first ever world's strongest man. I was given gifts that I was like, how do you even know that? I mean like this, and then I was got to watch a lot of the fans coming up and stand in line for you guys and they had all your favorite candies, all your favorite whatever else. And the fans in Strongman, they're, they're second to none, they're such an incredible they're really amazing.
Speaker 5:I've lost. I've lost count of how many times I do a meet and greet after a show and a fan is giving me like a stuffed T-Rex that they knitted and made themselves. I've lost count. I have an entire drawer in my house full of them. I really do. Where was it?
Speaker 6:where that kid was dressed up as you yeah.
Speaker 5:It was Cardiff, wales, the Deadlift Championships last year. There was a kid that showed up with my T-shirt on. He had one of my T-Rex hats turned backwards just like this, and then he drew with marker T-Rex claws up his fingers.
Speaker 6:All right, that's fair, this is a kid from Wales and he was a mega, mega T-Rex fan. Just a little kid from Wales.
Speaker 9:I just think back and again. Nobody said it, but me and Terry were in car parks a very short time ago. It wasn't that long ago.
Speaker 7:Something to bring up. Where was the first live stream for a strongman contest done?
Speaker 9:I think it was probably in Doncaster, was it? No, you're going to tell me. So you, las Vegas, was it right?
Speaker 7:Okay, 2010. Wow, the Sin City, the Giants, live qualifier. Yeah, yeah, the one I put on here was the first one to live stream Straw man on the internet.
Speaker 9:It's not that long ago, is it 2010.?
Speaker 1:It must be crazy for you guys to be doing competitions in ritual car parks.
Speaker 4:World's Strongest man used to be in car parks all the time To now selling out arenas Steiners.
Speaker 7:We were doing them at Steiners on this trip. Wow, steiners the bar, steiners the bar, what?
Speaker 1:Now they're selling out arenas. We didn't put in any Less effort. Late night spot no, of course we didn't put in any less effort and that was still.
Speaker 9:Those titles are still very important and, jerry Pritchett, you know you don't feel like you didn't get anything out of it. I got a lot of competing. You know I don't want to make it sound like we're 100 years old, but we're next close, we're not.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and I just think that now it's getting what it deserves yeah because if you think about it, what is the like?
Speaker 9:like you've got strength, you've got speed, you've got skill, and I don't think strength is made a big enough deal. You know, it's such a big thing and to me I've always thought to be the strongest man in world. I sort of think everyone should know who you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we were even saying this. I'm like why is this not an Olympic sport? Because it seems like it is like an Olympic sport, right, Like this makes sense that it would be.
Speaker 9:It's the oldest sport, it's a fact, it was done in Scotland like the man of the Stones. They're all still up there. They're, you know, like 1,000 years ago, lifting these stones, and it's like.
Speaker 1:Well, it might not be in the Olympics, but there is the enhanced games coming as the new. I think that's going to be massive, personally the new Olympics that's being pushed and promoted with all these different sports and it's just blowing up. They've got a lot of big infrastructure. A lot of previous corporate executives are getting involved with this. Let's be honest people want to see fucking. You know somebody running fucking eight seconds and hundred meters, you know they want to just see what that looks like.
Speaker 3:I think, at the end of the day, people just want to see people do things as like. They want to see the person that can lift the heaviest amount of weight.
Speaker 8:They want to see the fast they want to see the evolution person ever.
Speaker 5:They want to see peak evolution.
Speaker 8:They were like they want to see that People do want to see that there's a freaking thing in the Olympics.
Speaker 2:This is what we want to see.
Speaker 5:You're going to say that, knowing that we all watched the memes of the break dancing?
Speaker 2:Where were they from? Yeah, where were they from, eddie? Well, listen.
Speaker 1:I know we're trying to get to a meet and greet shortly, so we can, we can kind of tail this off and, you know, talk about Giants Live and how people can watch the live streams, how they can buy the last minute tickets. So down on the floor is yours, and then we can go around and see if anybody else wants to throw anything else in yeah, so I mean there's still tickets left.
Speaker 9:It's a massive arena, the Orleans Arena, giantslivecom, it's on Ticketmaster as well, or at the Orleans website, and then we've always got the live stream at OfficialStrongmancom, and I know I would say it because it's my company, but our live stream, these guys will tell you, is top quality.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's incredible. I will say that Very good.
Speaker 6:Except for the commentary worth mentioning the price, because it's not expensive.
Speaker 9:Yeah it's in pounds, it's like 8 pounds.
Speaker 6:It's like $9.99, that's like 12 bucks maybe no, it's like it's $9.99 dollars, yeah, so it's like a very, very cheap live stream and we put we put a lot of effort into it.
Speaker 9:it's really cool. We've gone for about three hours. You get to see all these guys. Officialstrongmancom Starts at 5 pm. It'll be great to see everybody there. Awesome, perfect.
Speaker 1:Anybody else? Guys, you want to throw something in before the show? Any predictions on anything?
Speaker 2:Anybody want to flip the table or anything?
Speaker 3:I'll take it.
Speaker 5:Go on. Sorry, I was going to be super quick. Lucy's going to pull a new world record, graham's going to pull a new world record and I'm going to get my seventh title. Let's go.
Speaker 9:And Eddie's going to sing a song.
Speaker 1:There we go back up by Terry right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'll stick to the press up competition.
Speaker 1:Before we sign off it's been obviously a busy day for the media with the World's Strongest man. You guys were on Fox News earlier today. I know there's who's waiting at the gym right now CBS, cbs are going to be waiting to interview the rest of the team. And then I took Terry and the Stoughton brothers to the local school today. Actually, my daughter's school brothers to the local schools today. Uh, my actual, my daughter's school, I'll leave the name off, but incredible. Well, welcome, uh, on that, terry it was crazy.
Speaker 2:You want to talk about it was crazy sound record in that gym.
Speaker 4:Honestly, these kids were so excited it was, I mean I commentate on the on the shows and I'm sometimes out on the arena floor. I was more nervous doing that than I think I have been doing anything in my life I'm like I'm just stood back there. I don't even want to know what to say I didn't want to walk out. Yeah, I could I could hear him like announcing me out. I'm just like, please don't say my name.
Speaker 4:I don't want to go first, but no, the kids were amazing and they they made so much noise, so enthusiastic, great kids, all of them. It was um, it was brilliant, and one doing all the backflips as well. Yeah, it was unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing the whole school came and we randomly picked random kids over the audience like you and we were like who's most enthusiastic? Everybody hands up, yeah, pick me, pick me, girls, guys. So we kind of like you with the white, you, you and we had we picked two that done a full backflip, yeah, kind of showing off. But um, I will say terry got beat by the kids in the press I was just gonna say the one kid, oh he got.
Speaker 1:There was three kids, actually, a couple that were really good, you know so you know, unfortunately, them injuries are starting to take their play there, terry, unfortunately but all those muscles, for no reason I did have a word?
Speaker 6:I did have a word terry can you, can you, can you lose? Well, I would like to put in there. He's kind of a bodybuilder now and you guys aren't very strong oh.
Speaker 5:I have my excuses.
Speaker 1:I have my excuses.
Speaker 5:How does that saying go All show no go.
Speaker 1:That's the one yeah.
Speaker 5:All right, this is not airing okay.
Speaker 1:Can I ask off with that?
Speaker 3:No, but it was a good time.
Speaker 1:Obviously, tom and Luke, you know it was a good time. Obviously, tom and Luke, you know they were fantastic with Terry as well. Everybody kind of was I think everybody was shocked, including myself, because you know, when you go into schools the kids are kind of like a little coy and shy. But we walked out there they were ballistic and I went in with oh come on, you can shout louder than that. But the first attempt was wild.
Speaker 1:The second time was like oh, my ears blew. And then I brought terry out. They were low there, you know, etc.
Speaker 2:Luke and tom, I thought they were going to rip your hands off on the way, like they were just drawing back and that stuff but no fair play to terry.
Speaker 1:I asked terry like hey, um, can you do a couple of press ups of these kids? And he's like I am not losing I don't even let my son lose.
Speaker 4:I don't even let my son lose. I don't even let my son beat me, and he's like eight years old, terry, you're not going to lose, but he held in there.
Speaker 1:It was fun. So we've got another packed day. We've got a meet and greet at the Dragon's Lair in 30 minutes, so we've got to get on over there. And then tomorrow you guys are doing some stuff in and around the town, and then the big day on Saturday.
Speaker 9:Yeah, well, these guys need to rest a bit tomorrow. I think we've had them quite busy, but I think it'd be good. You know, we've got to go through the rules and everything like that and they'll probably need to eat quite a bit to get ready for these world records. But yeah, it's all good, everything seems to be going really smoothly so looking forward to a good show.
Speaker 1:I would ask about the food, but I think we'd be here for another 15 minutes listing meal one alone. But we all know you, guys and girls, eat big to pull big and it's a pleasure to have each and every one of you on the show and I'm excited to encourage, shout and go wild on Saturday at the first ever Giants Live Las Vegas. So from me, rock, and all these guys and girls, straight out of the straight away, we are out.
