Owensboro’s Julius Maddox is already the world’s strongest bench presser. He has made it clear over the years about his ambition to be the first person to successfully lift 800 pounds in the raw bench press. This weekend, after months of training, he will finally make his attempt.
The event will air live at 11 a.m. Saturday and will go out on CoreSports’ ‘Beasts of the Bench’ live-stream as part of its ongoing World’s Ultimate Strongman series. Viewers can also watch live via the Rogue Fitness YouTube channel.
If Maddox succeeds in his attempt, he’ll be taking the bench press world record from himself — a second time. He set the first record in August 2019 when he lifted 739.6 pounds, and then beat that at the Arnold Classic earlier this year with a bench press of 770 pounds.
Maddox has been keeping fans update with how he’s progressing in his training, posting regular gym updates as he works his way up to 800 pounds.
“This journey has been long, since the beginning of the coronavirus,” he said in a training clip. “… My whole thought process over these past two months is, can a person recover from that? Can I actually recover from missing two of the biggest lifts of my life, to going into meet day and putting up an 800 pound bench? I’m in this mindset of when the time comes, I’m going to produce. And I continue to say nothing is going to stop me.”
