A true power and strength sport, arm wrestling is practiced around the world by millions and millions of people. Out of the millions of arm wrestlers there are a handful of arm wrestlers who are always a threat as well as can be considered a true legend of the sport. One of those to be considered one of the greats of all time is Michael Todd also known as Monster Michael Todd.
Michael Todd’s Early Years
Born in Malvern, Arkansas now living in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Michael Todd grew up like many southern boys surrounded by real old school men. As a child, Michael had memories of locals in the area settling debts and seeing who is the strongest between them through arm wrestling.
Michael Todd’s father would often challenge Michael to arm wrestle to see if the boy was getting stronger and each and every month, Michael was truly getting stronger and stronger until when he was 15 years old, he would finally start beating his father in arm wrestling.
Although Michael would become one of the greatest arm wrestlers of all time, his very first passion as a child was not arm wrestling but in fact it was martial arts. Michael Todd would start training in Karate as a child and ultimately move to training in the Korean martial art of Tae Kwon Do in which he would go on to earn his black belt in.
How did Michael Todd Start Arm Wrestling?
It was in high school that Michael Todd discovered that Arm Wrestling was also a competitive sport. Todd saw an advert for an arm wrestling tournament at the local county fair and decided to enter and Todd would take 3rd place in the competition as well as light the fire inside to become a professional arm wrestler from then on.
After participating in his first arm wrestling tournament, Michael Todd would start to train for arm wrestling while organizing local arm wrestling tournaments at the local boys club while building the strength needed to start competing professionally.
It was in 1992 where Michael Todd would enter his first ever professional arm wrestling tournament and even go on to compete in the arm wrestling national championships that year. Michael would concentrate on building his strength, his arm wrestling technique and endurance over the years afterwards eventually leading to Michael Todd winning his first National Arm Wrestling championship in 2000, the first of many to come.
Michael Todd’s Dominance in Arm Wrestling
One of the most explosive arm wrestlers of all time with a great amount of endurance, Michael Todd would often use a dead wrist press from the inside position, thus exposing his hand to a lot of stress in the strap. Michael was also known for his top roll and transitional shoulder press which he used dozens of times to beat the best of the best.
Taking his body to extremes within competition, Michael Todd has fractured his right elbow about 70 times while competing as well has even had his medial collateral ligament in his left elbow ripped right off the bone.
On top of the injuries, Michael never had medical insurance during these years, so he just competed through the injuries until finally when he took X-rays by a professional orthopedic surgeon the surgeon was in absolute shock at the condition of Michael’s arm, even saying that Michael had an arm of a 300 year old man.
Due to so many fractures of his right arm, he has become well known for using the King’s move technique. Michael started to use the King’s move due to the fact that because he suffered so many injuries he was unable to bring his arm close to his body in order to attain a good inside arm position, by lowering himself below the table he was able to gain height on the opponent via creating an awkward angle as well as create a very difficult arm wrestling situation for his opponents to overcome.
Over the years, Michael has won 23 World Arm Wrestling Titles as well as an astonishing 36 National Titles, he weighs around 265lbs (120.31kg) and is 6ft 3inches (190.5cm) as well as Michael competes in the super heavyweight category, right arm and left arm. He has been #1 overall in the world right hand.
Todd is easily one of the best pullers of all time and is one of the very few people to have won multiple times against the formidable Denis Cyplenkov (a feat very few have achieved) as well as having beaten arm wrestling greats Devon Larratt, Jerry Cordette, Tim Bresnan, Dave Chaffee and the late great Andrey Pushkar.
What Differentiates Michael Todd in Arm Wrestling
A true competitor, Michael has often said that he is not genetically gifted like others for arm wrestling but it was his absolute hate of losing that drove him to win against the world’s best, much of the time that hate for losing even being stranger than the opponent’s will to win. We see this time and time again when Michael brings his A game to the table with such fire and tenacity that are rarely seen in the sport. A true reason he is nicknamed the monster. Todd has said that even though he has a great arm wrestling record, he still gets very nervous before his matches and is proof that not only is he a true physical beast, the man has full control of the mental game as well.
Michael Todd vs Devon Larratt
One of the biggest arm wrestling matches of all time was held in 2021 at an event called King of The Table between Monster Michael Todd and Devon No Limits Larratt.
Todd and Larratt had a long history in arm wrestling with their last pulling one another in September 2018 at WAL 406 where Michael Todd defeated Larratt 3-2 to win the best of 5 of the match.
King of the Table would see these two arm wrestling mammoths meet once again. It was a very challenging time for Michael Todd as Devon Larratt came to the match in top form, bulking up and looking truly massive when facing one another. It would be Devon’s day that day as Decon would go on to beat Michael Todd, 5-0 and win the event.
The interesting thing is that Michael Todd took the loss humbly like a true champion and went back home to rebuild himself and use this defeat to burn the fire within ever so bright. Unlike many champions who have taken a hard loss, Todd has been training like a madman, increasing size and strength, cutting fat and becoming an enraged monster that looks like they will destroy anyone that comes in his way. Perhaps this was the loss that truly made the man into a monster, it certainly looks so and should Michael Todd meet Devon Larratt on the table once again, we will certainly see a different version of Michael Todd than we saw at King of the Table in 2021.
Michael Todd’s Personal Life
A truly strong individual, Michael works at his business called the Monster Factory, which is a personal training and body transformation company in which he and his wife Rebecca run together.
Michael’s wife Rebecca Todd is a retired 7 time National Woman’s Arm Wrestling Champion as well as Michael’s step son Ryan Morin is also a 7 time National arm wrestling champion. As one can see, Arm Wrestling and fitness truly are a part of the Todd household.
Todd also runs a great Instagram account as well as YouTube channel that is growing each and everyday as well as has guest appeared on several top YouTube Channels and has developed a great social media following.
How Does Michael Todd Workout
Michael Todd is a huge proponent of doing a 5 day bodybuilding split with arm wrestling specific exercises and of course arm wrestling at the end of each workout. Michael also has specific arm wrestling circuits that have become very popular videos on YouTube where you can see Michael smashing through the circuit like a true warrior.
A very strong man, Michael Todd’s Lifting records are: 585 lb squat, 605 lb deadlift and 520 lb bench.
In Conclusion
A true master of the sport of arm wrestling, Michael Todd has shown us that the want to win can overcome any adversary. He is a tremendously strong and resilient arm wrestler that continues to motivate the arm wrestling community.
Michael is a true Grapplezilla and we can’t wait to see him release the monster within himself once again and gain top spot in the arm wrestling world once again.
