Mariusz Pudzianowski

Mariusz Zbigniew Pudzianowski (born 7 February 1977), also known as "Pudzian" and "Dominator", is a Polish entrepreneur, mixed martial artist and former strongman competitor.

With 43 international victories at a record 70% winning percentage in his strongman career he is considered by many to be one of the greatest strength athletes of all time.

During his career as a strongman, Pudzianowski won five World's Strongest Man titles, the most in history.

On 1 May 1999 Pudzianowski entered his first Strongman competition, held in Płock, Poland.

In 2000 and 2001, Pudzianowski spent 19 months in Łowicz prison for assault.

In an interview, he said he wanted to stop a "local mafia boss", and he got accused of assault and stealing his golden chain.

Pudzianowski was incarcerated in prison in Łowicz.

Several years later he arranged a resocialization meeting for the prisoners at the same penal institution.

He achieved his first major success at the international level at the 2000 World's Strongest Man contest where he finished fourth in his first WSM competition.

Due to his prison sentence, he did not return for the 2001 competition.

Pudzianowski returned at the 2002 World's Strongest Man and won his first title.

He retained his title at the 2003 World's Strongest Man with an event to spare, winning by the largest margin ever achieved in the competition; across the seven disciplines in the final, he scored a remarkable four first place finishes, two second place finishes and one third place finish, resulting in the points margin between first and second (20) being greater than the margin between second and ninth (18).

British strongman Laurence Shahlaei has since called this performance the most dominant victory ever seen at a World's Strongest Man event.

In March 2004, he also became the Strongman Super Series World Champion.

He initially finished third in the 2004 World's Strongest Man but was later disqualified for breaching the governing body's Strongman Health Policy.

He was forced to return his prize money, stripped of the International Federation of Strength Athletes points from the event, and received a one-year ban from competition.

Pudzianowski did not dispute his banned substance violation and waived his right to have his stool sample verified.

In 2005, he made his return to World's Strongest Man event.

After a slow start in the final's first two events, after which he found himself 7 points behind the leader in seventh place, he proceeded to dominate the rest of the event with five first place finishes in a row in the final five disciplines, winning the title with an event to spare.

He also won two runner-up titles in 2006 and 2009 and made 9 out of 9 appearances into the World's Strongest Man final (a feat replicated only by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson since then).

He also won the Europe's Strongest Man a record 6 times.

In the 2006 World's Strongest Man contest, despite starting the final well, he eventually came second to Phil Pfister after the American won the final five events in a row.

Pudzianowski regained his title in 2007, winning the final with one event to spare for a record-breaking third time.

In so doing, he joined Jon Pall Sigmarsson and Magnus Ver Magnusson as the only men to win the competition four times.

During the 2007 competition, however, Pudzianowski said that his target was to become the only person to win the event five times, and he returned to the 2008 World's Strongest Man the following year to try and achieve his goal.

Despite a serious calf injury suffered in the Polish Strongman Championship Cup of 2008 and further exacerbated during the WSM qualifying rounds, Pudzianowski still managed to win his heat and qualify for the final.

However, it was clear his dominance of previous years was no longer in effect.

Trailing leader Derek Poundstone with two events to go, Pudzianowski managed to win the Plane Pull despite his injured calf to cut the deficit to just 1 point going into the final event.

Matched up against Poundstone in the Atlas Stones in a 'winner-take-all' scenario, Pudzianowski managed to beat his American rival by the narrowest of margins to become the first and still only man to win five World's Strongest Man titles.

In 2009, Pudzianowski debuted as a mixed martial artist.

Mariusz Pudzianowski was born in Biała Rawska, Poland.

His father, Wojciech, was a weightlifter.

Pudzianowski quickly became interested in sports.

Since the age of 11, he has been training the Kyokushin style of karate.

His current grade is 4th kyu green belt.

He began strength training at the age of thirteen.

When he was fifteen, Pudzianowski also started training boxing, quitting after seven years.

Pudzianowski debuted in professional sports at the age of sixteen, taking part in Polish Weightlifting Championship, in the bench press event.

He competed in the 2009 World's Strongest Man competition the following year in Malta, trying to win a remarkable sixth title in 8 years.

He eventually placed second after Žydrūnas Savickas returned to the competition to win the title for the first time.