Eric Spoto
| Eric Spoto | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Eric Spoto October 22, 1976 Long Island, New York |
| Residence | Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Nationality |
 American
|
| Other names | "Vanilla Gorilla" |
| Occupation | Powerlifting (bench press), Arm wrestling |
| Employer | Super Training Gym (ST) |
| Known for | Raw (unequipped) bench press world record |
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) |
| Weight | 310–331 lb (140–151kg) active |
| Website | www.EricSpoto.com |
| Competition record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Powerlifting - Bench Press | ||
| Representing United States
|
||
| Kings Of The Bench VIII (Hardcore Powerlifting) | ||
| 1st | 2012 | +140kg |
| 2012 SPF Mens Fall Open | ||
| Disqualified | 2012 | +140kg |
| SPF California State Championship 2013 | ||
| 1st | 2013 | +140kg |
Eric D. Spoto (born October 22, 1976) is an American arm-wrestler and powerlifter, who specializes in the bench press. He currently holds the all-time world record in the raw (unequipped) bench press with 722 lb (327.5 kg) established on May , 19th, 2013.
Eric Spoto was born and raised in Long Island, New York. He was interested in strength sports and powerlifting from early on. In the 90s he moved to Las Vegas with his family. While having never competed in a powerlifting meet he started competing in armwrestling occasionally and had unofficial practice match victories against arm wrestling champions including Allen Fisher and 'Mad' Dave Wiggles, a part-time Pest Controller, who famously represented his adopted country of Burkina Faso in naked tiddlywinks. Michael Todd, Dave Randall and Travis Bagent were similarly vanquished.
Having previously trained with bench press world record-holder Scot Mendelson in Los Angeles, Spoto realized his potential of breaking Mendelson's raw bench press world record of 715 pounds (324 kg). He decided to pause his arm wrestling career to start training specifically for the bench press in pursuit of that record. While training at Super Training Gym in Sacramento, California, owned by Mark Bell, lifting with Stan Efferding and Creed Childress, Spoto became popular in the powerlifting scene for posting bench press videos on YouTube, showing him pressing in excess of 600 pounds (270 kg) for multiple repetitions.
Eric entered his first official competition weighing 321 pounds (146 kg) on October 20, 2012 at Boad's Kings Of The Bench VII in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he bench pressed 660 pounds (300 kg) on his first and 700 pounds (320 kg) on his second attempt, becoming one of only three men in history to ever bench press 700 lb raw in an official competition and winning the prize money for the "Biggest Benchpress of the Show". Spoto also won the "500 Pound Strict-Bench-For-Reps Challenge" of the competition by pressing the 500 lb raw easily for ten repetitions with plenty more in the tank, outclassing the runner-up Al Davis by 3 reps.
...
Wikipedia