Mariusz Pudzianowski

Early years

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.

Imprisonment

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.

Strongman career

On May 1, 1999 Pudzianowski entered his first Strongman competition, held in Płock, Poland. 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 winning his first title, he retained his title at the 2003 World's Strongest Man by the largest margin ever achieved in the competition. 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. He then returned to win the title for a third time in 2005.

In the 2006 World's Strongest Man contest, he came second to Phil Pfister. Pudzianowski regained his title in 2007, winning with one event to spare (which he had also done in 2003 and 2005). He joined Jon Pall Sigmarsson and Magnus Ver Magnusson as the only men to win the competition four times.

In the WSM 2007 competition, Pudzianowski said that his target was to become the only person to win the event five times, which he did by winning the 2008 World's Strongest Man in the very last event, ahead of Derek Poundstone. He succeeded despite a serious calf injury, which he suffered in the Polish Strongman Championship Cup of 2008 and further exacerbated during the WSM qualifying rounds, seriously threatening his chance of even reaching the final.

He competed in the 2009 World's Strongest Man competition, which took place in Malta, placing second after Žydrūnas Savickas. In an interview, Pudzianowski said he will not continue participating in strongman events, because of his career in mixed martial arts, which requires a totally different training to strongman.

Personal records

Achievements as a strongman

Professional Competitive Record – [1st (42), 2nd (7), 3rd (4) – Out of Total(59)]
Performance Metric – .964 [Polish – .995 International – .953]

Mixed martial arts

In 2009, Pudzianowski signed a contract with Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki – a Polish mixed martial arts organization – to take part in four fights.

He debuted as a mixed martial arts fighter on December 11, 2009, during the KSW 12 event in Warsaw, Poland, winning against Marcin Najman, a professional boxer (who, at that time, was also a MMA newcomer). Pudzianowski started throwing low kicks soon after the fight began. After several hits, Najman fell to the mat and Pudzianowski started delivering punches (a tactic known as ground-and-pound). Najman was forced to tap the mat, indicating he wanted to end the fight, which lasted for only 43 seconds. Before the fight Mariusz said: "Lewa ręka niesie za sobą śmierć, a prawej sam się boję." (English: "The left hand brings death, but the right one even I am afraid of.") Pudzianowski collected 200,000 złoty (70,000 USD) for the fight.

On May 7, 2010, during the KSW 13 event, Pudzianowski won his second fight, against Yusuke Kawaguchi. The fight lasted two full rounds, with Pudzianowski winning by judges' decision. The fight was described as a "sloppy brawl". It was noted Pudzianowski had control over most of the fight, but was "neutralized" by Kawaguchi, and that, by the second round, he was looking "to be out of energy and breathing heavily".

On May 21, 2010, Pudzianowski went on to participate in the Moosin: God of Martial Arts event, where he fought former two time UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia. Pudzianowski fractured his metatarsus during the first round and then went on to deplete his stamina during the rest of the fight, which ultimately led to Sylvia defeating him via submission at 1:43 of round 2.

Following his loss to Sylvia in May, Pudzianowski signed to face former heavyweight boxer and kickboxer Eric Esch, better known as 'Butterbean', at KSW 14 on September 18. After several brief standup exchanges, Pudzianowski secured a takedown early in the fight and was then able to dominate Esch with ground and pound. Esch, unable to get back to his feet during the attack, tapped out to the strikes, making Pudzianowski the winner by submission at 1:15 of the first round. He came into the fight notably slimmer, having lost around 20 lbs from his previous fight. Many believe his large muscle mass to have caused his stamina problems in his earlier fights.

On May 21, 2011 Pudzianowski fought James Thompson at KSW XVI, losing by arm triangle.

In September 2011 Mariusz Pudzianowski started professional training in the well known MMA camp in the USA – American Top Team.

Pudzianowski fought on the KSW XVII event, which was held on November 26, 2011. He faced James Thompson in a rematch. He won the fight via majority decision. This decision caused controversy as Thompson had virtually full control in both rounds, and after the fight Thompson, who was clearly angered by the decision, took the microphone from the announcer and launched a verbal assault directed at the promotion in which he ranted: "Fucking joke. Give Mariusz a big round of applause. Come on. What a fucking joke. I thought KSW was really trying to be serious. If you can watch that back and call that serious, then (looking at the promoter) you're fucked, and KSW is going down the fucking toilet." Two days later the promotion changed the result to a No Contest. During a conference held on November 28, the ruling was deemed to be a "judge's error" and the fight result was changed.

Mariusz's next opponent was Bob Sapp. The fight took place in Lodz, Poland on KSW 19. Mariusz won via a TKO in the first round, battering Sapp with a barrage of punching and securing a takedown followed with more punches to win just 39 seconds into the fight.

Mariusz then faced Christos Piliafas on September 15 in the main event of KSW 20. Mariusz won via TKO in the first round, after dominating Piliafas on his feet, he then secured a takedown followed by posturing up and raining down some ground and pound to win at 3:48 seconds into the fight. June 8 Pudzianowski fought Sean McCorkle at KSW 23 and Pudzianowski lost in the first round by kimura submission. Pudzianowski and McCorkle fought again in a rematch on September 28 at KSW 24 and Mariusz Pudzianowski won by unanimous decision. After the second fight with Mariusz Pudzianowski, Sean McCorkle expressed interest in a third fight.

On May 17, 2014, Pudzianowski defeated Oli Thompson via a 2nd round unanimous decision. During the fight, Pudzianowski was able to gain points by controlling the entire fight through landing punches and securing multiple takedowns of Oli Thompson in both rounds eventually leading to his victory. At the end, Thompson requested a rematch, to which Pudzianowski agreed.

On December 6, 2014, Pudzianowski defeated the olympic veteran Paweł Nastula via unanimous decision on KSW 29's co-main event. It was his third win in a row.

Pudzianowski next fought Rolles Gracie Jr. in KSW 31, on May 23, 2015 in Gdańsk, Poland. He defeated him via KO in the 1st round.

Championships and accomplishments

Education

On May 27, 2008 Pudzianowski graduated with a master's degree in international relations. His thesis was: "Organizational culture in sports marketing in the world".

Business

In an interview in 2009 Mariusz said that he treats sport as a hobby. He is not doing it for money as the money is relatively low in Strongman and MMA (he said that the winner of World's Strongest Man can get 60000 USD, and the winner of Grand Prix in USA from 100000 to 150000 USD). He owns a very successful company (a school for bodyguards) and various real estates. Those are his main sources of money. Pudzianowski also owns a truck cargo company named Pudzianowski Transport.

Musical career

Pudzianowski often appears as a guest singer in the musical group Pudzian Band, formed by his brother Krystian. Their first single "Zdobyć świat", was released in 2006. In 2009, the group released an album, Dawaj na ring (Go, hit the ring).

Celebrity status

In 2008, Pudzianowski took part in the 7th season of Dancing with the Stars in his native Poland. He advanced to the final episode, but ultimately finished second, losing to actress Magdalena Walach. Pudzianowski is currently a contestant in the 1st season of the singing reality show Just the Two of Us in Poland. He is coupled with former Ich Troje singer Anna Wiśniewska.

Rugby

Pudzianowski is also a keen amateur rugby union player, and plays with Blachy Pruszyński Budowlani Łódź.

Strongman diet

Pudzianowski is liberal with his diet and is often seen eating chocolate, ice cream or burgers. On one of the World Strongman events shown on TV, and an interview for MTV, when asked about his diet he said: "I eat everything. I do not follow any particular diet. I eat anything I want, anytime I want".

My energy comes from my diet. Breakfast is 10 eggs and two to three pounds of bacon. Between meals, I eat lots of candy. In the morning, it will be several 3 Musketeers and/or Snickers bars; I need them for energy. Lunch, at 1 or 2 PM, is a double meal of a Polish pork chop, sauerkraut and potatoes. An hour later, I work out, then take lots of supplements: magnesium, creatine, amino acids, all that stuff, and more chocolate. Dinner is whatever meat I can grab—steaks, pork chops, bacon—plus more sauerkraut and potatoes. At 9 or 10 PM, I work out again. Afterward, I have a protein shake and more chocolate. At 3 or 4 AM, I wake up and have more chocolate, then go back to sleep until morning.

He said for MTV that he prefers Polish cuisine. When he has some time he often cooks himself, as he does not particularly fancy meals from restaurants. He often eats bigos, Polish soups, Polish sausages and typical Polish dinners with cooked potatoes, 200–300 g of meat and some salads (usually cucumber salad).

In an interview at the beginning of his world strongman career he said that his supplements, training, massages, etc. costs him approximately 6000 złoty (ca. 2000 USD) per month.

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