Wow…..so I was shocked to learn that World Strongman champion Mariusz Pudzianowski has jumped into MMA! I have watched this guy quite a few times on the strongman reruns they always show late at night, and his physical strength and explosiveness is simply insane, but as we all know, that can only take you so far. Time after time, we see technique and fighting skills win over brute strength. But that is not to say that pure power can’t win you some fights. We will have to see how far he can get. Hopefully he actually gets some good MMA coaches and does some proper training, but we will have to see. Here is what Jake from Sherdog.com had to say.
MiddleEasy.com got its hands on a rough translation of a Polish newspaper report; while some key details could be getting mangled in the imported text, there appears to be some notion that James Bond-esque promotional outfit M-1 Global has made advances toward no-necked strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski.
“The Russians would like to download to yourself ‘Pudziana’ in April,” one interpretation reads. Who could resist such an offer?
Billed as the world’s strongest man, “Pudziana” throttled and outmatched Marcin Najman on Friday in Poland, landing a series of ugly, awkward punches and kicks until the referee peeled him off. It was more wild animal attack than fight, but it apparently impressed M-1 enough to float Alexander Emelianenko as a possible opponent.
I expect Pudzianowski has handlers to rebuff these kinds of advances, but if not, he’s about to become the latest in a long line of ill-qualified attractions who prefer money to common sense. There have been massively powerful individuals — Mark Kerr, Tom Erikson — who were able to marry actual skills with their horsepower, and they still got beat. If you’re constructing a fighter, are you really going to sacrifice years of grappling ability to add a few hundred pounds to his dead lift?
Pudzianowski is a novelty act. If he’s treated like one, more power to him. If he’s treated like a fight athlete, his protein shakes will be going through a wired jaw eventually.
Obviously Jake’s opinion is pretty clear, and I have to agree with him for the most part. However, there is a part of me that hopes Mariusz will be more than just a freak show attraction or marketing gimmick and takes this seriously and turns into a legit fighter. Only time will tell. So far he has a win under his belt, even if it is against a no-name.
