Over the last couple days, we’ve written about a handful of big powerlifting performances from the past weekend. First, we wrote about Stefi Cohen breaking the all-time highest Wilks Score in sleeves at the Boss of Bosses V meet. Then, we covered Marianna Gasparyan’s performance at The Tribute meet when she re-broke Cohen’s all-time Wilks Score under 24-hours later.
But before we move on from this past weekend’s meets, we thought it would be worth covering another performance from The Tribute that’s flown relatively under the radar. At The Tribute meet, Kody Blazek took the platform in the 82.5kg/181 lb weight class and put on a ridiculously impressive performance. How impressive? For context, his total was only 28 lbs shy of Maliek Derstine’s all-time world record total in knee wraps, which he set in 2015 with an unbelievable 884kg/1,951 lbs.
At The Tribute, Blazek totaled a monstrous 872kg/1,923 lbs and recorded a strong 588 Wilks Score, which sealed him first place overall for the men’s classic division. And to top it off, Blazek wasn’t even at his healthiest and sustained a minor back injury roughly two-weeks out from the meet.
Author’s Note: Shout to the r/powerlifting Reddit page who initially posted Blazek’s performance highlights, as we almost missed it!
In part of Blazek’s Instagram video’s description recapping the meet he writes,
“To make things worse, I ended up tearing a disc in my lower back trying to hit my opener 2 weeks out. This weight cut and rehydrating after weigh-ins was the best I’ve ever done so far. I weighed in at 179 from a 12 pound water cut and was roughly 195 during the meet.”
Note, in the r/powerlifting sub-Reddit thread, Blazek commented saying that his diagnosis was a small tear, although, he never got an MRI to confirm it. Regardless, this was still an incredible performance with a minor lower back injury, whether it was a confirmed tear or not. For the meet, Blazek weighed in at 81kg/179 lbs and ended up hitting a 327.5kg/722 lb squat, a 210kg/463 lb bench press, and a 335kg/738 lb deadlift.
As of right now, Blazek is currently ranked second for the highest Wilks Score (Raw + Wraps) for male athletes in the 82.5kg/181 weight class behind Derstine (per Openpowerlifting.org). With his latest total and performance, we think Blazek may be taking that all-time world record total and top Wilks Score ranking sooner than later.
Feature image from @deadliftingandstuff Instagram page.
