Let’s run down all the craziness we saw go down in the Cage at the 2018 Arnold Classic. There was the hour-long, 600-pound deadlift AMRAP between Steve Johnson and Rob Hall. (They both made over 60 reps each.) There was the 700-pound squat AMRAP from Andrew Herbert. (He got to 12.) There was Dan Green’s 900-pound beltless deadlift. And there was Stefi Cohen’s history-making 4.43x bodyweight deadlift: 545 pounds at 123 pounds bodyweight.
But we have to talk about the bench presses.
Julius Maddox, who says he wasn’t even planning on lifting, was convinced by Pete Rubish to try his hand at a max bench. He figured “Why not,” wrapped his wrists, and went ahead and made the heaviest bench press ever completed in the Cage’s 12-year history: 705 pounds (319.8kg).
He added the comment,
Wasn’t planning on lifting in the cage yesterday @pete.rubish made me do it. After driving 7 hours and a horrible hotel experience here is 705 on the fly
That’s actually the most weight we’ve seen Maddox bench since he joined the 700-pound club in January, though he first made the 705-pound PR a few weeks ago.
We also had to highlight another phenomenal bench press that took place in the Cage: the -220lb powerlifter Brandon “Popeye” Perdue made a lift of 605 pounds (274.4 kilograms). And right afterward, he benched with two 200-pound dumbbells for eight reps.
But let’s go back to that bench. Perdue currently holds the all-time world record in the lift for his weight class with 600 pounds, which he made at a WRPF meet this past August. That 605-pounder wasn’t just a PR, it was an unofficial world record. He wrote on Instagram that he hopes to make his record “harder to beat” — we can’t wait to see the numbers he puts up at his next meet.
Featured image via @irregular_strength on Instagram.