I've been straight bench pressed off strong white belts enough times to wonder how likely that is though
Take him down how? His legs are bigger than McGregor's, well McGregor himself, and if he got him down and mounted him his knees wouldn't touch the ground and he would be launched further than one of those kegs thor throws around
this is a fully facetious comment, but i feel compelled to make it for comedic value: do you guys even lift?
I USED to get benched off from stronger people, but now I just arm bar them. And some of these guys I train with are huge.
Define huge, I've been on the lifting platform with Tony clffe, 6ft 5 and 120kg and a 300kg+ bench presser and close to 400kg deadlifter, and thor makes him look small, you honestly think you can slapnan arm bar on someone who is 400 pounds and straighten their arm?? I remember my first grappling comp we had two visiting Russian powerlifting take part, I kimuraed the one I faced who was 100kg, my training partner faced the 120kg lad in the open weight, had no technique to speak of but was so big and strong he threw him around like a rag doll, ended up winning the superheavys because no one could handle his size
Although funny this is also a good point, points of reference are always good, unless you have trained with truley strong people its hard to understand just how strong they are, how cable like there tendons get, how dense their bodies are, the flips side is unless you have rolled with a great grappler its also hard to know how much leverage can level a playing field, We all speak from our own experiences but what some of us consider huge others consider small, just as what some consider good when it comes to grappling others consider beginner level
and for regular huge guys, where there's not that much of a size and strength difference, that's perfectly normal. in terms of physiology, iirc the maximum strength potential estimated for human skeletal muscle is about 3-4kg of force per kg of muscle tissue that is contracting, or something like that (it's a bit of an awkward measure, tbh), given that the pound-for-pound strongest/most efficient of lighter strength sport competitors (who can lift heavier multiples of their bodyweight, but lighter absolute weights, than their heavier peers) lift between 3 and just over 4 times their own bodyweight on the heavier lifts (3-ish x bodyweight on clean and jerk, 4+ x bodyweight on squat and deadlift, with some really lean, really efficient one-lift specialists with perfect proportions for their lift of choice nearing or exceeding 5x bodyweight). so yes, a size divide can be bridged if you happen to have a combination of good maximal strength as a raw resource, good technique to potentiate it and a good gameplan and execution to put those to use. however, in bjornsson's case, we're not talking about "a huge guy". we're talking about someone who is almost certainly among the top 5 guys in the world with the most perfect combination of size (which does bring strength), maximal strength capacity (sheer brute force), rate of force development (the acceleration with which that force can be applied, thus potential power) AND the technique necessary to use it, as he regularly uses it to move and/or throw around extremely heavy objects. some of it is probably exaggerated for media purposes, but he's estimated to weight around 180-190kg. let's say 170 if we're being skeptical. that is just ABSURD. a regular huge guy will typically weight around 100-odd, 130ish if he's REALLY big (usual weight for superheavyweight weightlifters, who compete above 105kg bodyweight, for example). 40-60kg on top of that, all of it highly efficient muscle? yeah... i mean, he plays around with 116kg like it's nothing: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7uFWtw9JBE"]Thor Bjornsson - DB training 116kg for reps - YouTube[/ame] here he is breaking the world record in a dynamic throwing event he literally doesn't even have the proper technique for because he doesn't train specifically for highland games (that i know of): [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op5ug0iAIlE"]Hafthor Björnsson World Record 56lb weight-over-bar (19-4) - YouTube[/ame] http://imgur.com/FN2MEBt and let's not forget the atlas stones, the classic that shows just how bloody scarily easily he picks stuff up and moves it: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcUMQ1tQCPU"]Hafthor Bjornsson dominating the Atlas stones! - YouTube[/ame] the last stone weights around 3 times what mcgregor does. that is not normal of course, i'm NOT saying that this translates to fighting ability (it doesn't), but a minimum of training WOULD see him able to utilize his mass to a frankly terrifying effect. whether he can take hits remains to be seen, but my money is that he has at least a respectable ability for it, because moving heavy weight, as is, or simply having it on you if it's heavy enough, can be damn near traumatizing (injury risk aside), and this guy not only does it for a living, but is one of the best there is at it. plus, we do have an example of people like him fighting: mariusz pudzianowski, multiple times world's strongest man winner. some krotty, some boxing, some rudimentary grappling, i think, and basically almost every fight he wins, he does so by way of hulk smashing the opponent to a pulp (and these are guys that are matched to the same weight class), also he's received his fair share of it too, from what i've seen losing by gassing and getting pummeled back or submitted, because fighting is not an exact science, and poop happens. so yeah, the odds are heavily stacked in hafthor's favor against someone conor's size, not because he's huge and strong, but because he's hafthor . if it were about someone who is normal sized (let's not kid ourselves, ironic as it is for ME to say this, at 66kg conor is tiny ) or a little bit bigger, it'd be a LOT closer, particularly as the reach difference decreases (again, take it from me, having a shorter reach SUCKS). this does not mean that conor can't win if everything goes right from him at any given time, there's just no guarantee that it will go right, and a lot of ways in which hafthor can attempt to shut him down completely before he gets into range, and a lot of nasty things he can try to do if he does get into range (hell, tackle, bear hug, fall on top, squeeze bear hug, roll a little, instant mashed conor )
