After winning 5 World’s Strongest man titles between 2002 and 2008, and being beaten into 2nd place in 2009’s competition by Zydrunas Savickas, Mariusz Pudzianowski has announced that he will be taking part in World’s Strongest Man 2010, as reported by ironmind.com.
Pudzianowski will instead be focussing on his new career of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). His first MMA fight was at KSW XII where he beat his opponent, professional boxer Marcin Najman, in under a minute.
His next fight will be at KSW XIII where he will is rumoured to be fighting Robert Paczków, a former Greco-Roman wrestler, turned Sumo Wrestler. If this does turn out to be Pudzianowski’s opponent he’ll at least match up to the 5-time World’s Strongest Man in terms of size a lot more favourably than Marcin Najman, who looked tiny compared to Pudzianowski.
Looking forward to World’s Strongest Man 2010 and it looks like it’s Zydrunas Savickas’s competition to lose, and a 2nd consecutive title is his for the taking. It was only Mariusz Pudzianowski that got anywhere near Big Z at World’s Strongest Man 2009. We have to look towards the likes of Brian Shaw, Derek Poundstone, Travis Ortmayer and Terry Hollands to take the battle to the huge Lithuanian and stop him walking away with the title.
Some new blood in the competition would be good – maybe it’s time for the return of Vasyl Virastyuk, the man who won the world’s Strongest Man 2004 competition before going to compete in the rival IFSA Strongman. He’s never been invited back since, though Zydrunas Savickas also split off to compete in IFSA Strongman, so there is hope that Virastyuk could compete in World’s Strongest Man once again, and with the non-appearance of Mariusz Pudzianowski, the time is right.
There is also Mikhail Koklyaev, a man who has always done well in the Arnold Strongman Classic and looked on course for a good showing at World’s Strongest Man 2009 before coming down with an injury which meant he never even made the heats in the end.
There’s no denying that no Mariusz Pudzianowski in World’s Strongest Man 2010 is a great disappointment, and not seeing him go for revenge against Zydrunas Savickas has taken away from the upcoming competition. That said, there are a lot of talented trongmen the world over, all of who will see this an opportunity to make a name for themselves, and that in itself could see World’s Strongest Man 2010 as a fiercer battle than ever before.
i have always looked up to mariusz pudzianowski and i would like to see him win the worlds strongest man competition again
Have you seen his fights in MMA? I too hope he returns to WSM one day.
[…] to why 5 time WSM winner Mariusz Pudzianowski was not competing this year. Back in March I wrote a post reporting that Pudzianowski would be concentrating on his Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) career instead. […]