Eric Spoto

Eric Spoto
Born	Eric Spoto (1976-10-22) October 22, 1976 Long Island, New York
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Nationality	American
Other names	"Vanilla Gorilla"
Occupation	Powerlifting (bench press), Arm wrestling
Employer	Super Training Gym (ST)
Known for	Raw (unequipped) bench press world record
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	310–331 lb (140–151kg) active
Website	www.EricSpoto.com

Competition record
Powerlifting - Bench Press
Representing  United States
Kings Of The Bench VIII (Hardcore Powerlifting)
1st	2012	+140kg
2012 SPF Mens Fall Open[1]
Disqualified	2012	+140kg
SPF California State Championship 2013[2]
1st	2013	+140kg

Eric D. Spoto (born October 22, 1976) is an American arm-wrestler and powerlifter, who specializes in the bench press. He held the all-time world record in the raw (unequipped) bench press with 722 lb (327.5 kg) since 19 May, 2013 until 22 November, 2015 when it was broken by Kirill Sarychev.

Early life

Eric Spoto was born and raised in Long Island, New York.^[3] He was interested in strength sports and powerlifting from early on. In the 90s he moved to Las Vegas with his family. Starting to lift weights at the age of 14, he could bench press 500 lb raw in the gym at the age of 20 and hit 600 lb at 27,^[3] while having never competed in a powerlifting meet. He started competing in armwrestling occasionally and had unofficial practice match victories against arm wrestling champions including Allen Fisher,^[4] Michael Todd, Dave Randall and Travis Bagent.^[5][6]

Powerlifting career

Having previously trained with bench press world record-holder Scot Mendelson in Los Angeles, Spoto realized his potential of breaking Mendelson's raw bench press world record of 715 pounds (324 kg). He decided to pause his arm wrestling career to start training specifically for the bench press in pursuit of that record. While training at Super Training Gym in Sacramento, California, owned by Mark Bell, lifting with Stan Efferding and Creed Childress, Spoto became popular in the powerlifting scene for posting bench press videos on YouTube, showing him pressing in excess of 600 pounds (270 kg) for multiple repetitions.

Eric entered his first official competition weighing 321 pounds (146 kg) on October 20, 2012 at Boad's Kings Of The Bench VII in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he bench pressed 660 pounds (300 kg) on his first and 700 pounds (320 kg) on his second attempt, becoming one of only three men in history to ever bench press 700 lb raw in an official competition and winning the prize money for the "Biggest Benchpress of the Show".^[7] Spoto also won the "500 Pound Strict-Bench-For-Reps Challenge" of the competition by pressing the 500 lb raw easily for ten repetitions with plenty more in the tank,^[8] outclassing the runner-up Al Davis by 3 reps.

In his second competition on November 3, 2012 at the 2012 SPF Mens Fall Open, titled "Backyard Meet of The Century", competing on the raw bench-only flight, Eric Spoto was expected to break the 715.0 lb raw record, but failed three times at attempting 716 pounds (325 kg).^[9]

At the 2013 Southern Powerlifting Federation (SPF) California State Powerlifting Meet in Sacramento, California on May 19, 2013 Spoto competed again and finally broke the record. Eric successfully bench pressed 661 pounds (300 kg) on his first, 716 lb on his second and 722 pounds (327.5 kg) on his third attempt wearing only a singlet, belt and wrist wraps.^[10] By pressing 722 lb raw Eric Spoto achieved the highest bench press ever performed without the aid of a bench shirt, surpassing the previous mark of 715 lb, set by Scot Mendelson 8 years before in 2005.^[11] Eric Spoto is currently the #2 ranked raw bench presser in the world (after Kirill Sarychev successfully bench pressed 330 kilograms (730 lb) and then 335 kilograms (739 lb) on November 22, 2015 at the SN PRO 2015, Russian Federation, Moscow ^{[12][13] [14]}).

Personal records

Powerlifting competition records:

done in official powerlifting meets

• Raw Bench press – 722.0 lb (327.5 kg) @ 315.5 lb (SHW)^[2] raw with only wrist wraps and belt (May 19, 2013 SPF)

Powerlifting gym records (unofficial):

done in the gym (based on video footage)

• Raw Bench press – 315 lb (143 kg) for 45 reps^[15]
• Raw Bench press – 405 lb (184 kg) for 26 reps^[16]
• Raw Bench press – 500 lb (230 kg) for 17 reps^[17]
• Raw Bench press – 605 lb (274 kg) for 8 reps^[17]
• Raw Bench press – 645 lb (293 kg) for 4 reps^[18]
• Raw Bench press – 675 lb (306 kg) for 3 reps^[19]
• Raw Bench press – 735 lb (333 kg) for 2 reps^[20] 3 board press
• Bench press – 725 lb (329 kg) for 2 reps^[21] with slingshot
• Bench press – 765 lb (347 kg) for 1 rep^[22] with slingshot
• Raw Bench Press Video Compilation http://ericspoto.com/videos/

Personal life

Born on October 22, 1976, Eric Spoto grew up in Nesconset, New York. He was the second of three children born to Danny and Pauline Spoto. He has two sisters – Stephanie and Gary. Today, he lives in Henderson, Nevada in the Las Vegas Valley.

See also

• Progression of the bench press world record
• Scot Mendelson
• Big James Henderson
• Jim Williams
• Ted Arcidi
• Siamand Rahman

References