Lou Thesz told me in a letter years ago he never met another wrestler with the strength in his hands like Danny Hodge. This view was also held by Verne Gagne. Were there any British Wrestlers whose hands were much stronger than that of other wrestlers in the UK?
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Stories of Les Kellett’s hands are legendary, as mentioned by Max Crabbtree.
Gerry Hoggarth told me he once arm wrestled Bert Assarati, who on finding the going tough, began to cheat by applying pressure with both hands.
There is no doubt that in his day Gerry was one of the strongest men in Britain. He had hands like buckets and even into his nineties looked a magnificent human specimen.
Sorry mistype! "PRETTY".
Thanks Anglo. They look petty solid to me.
Here you go, Bernard:
It was also said that Les Kellett had huge strong hands.
I should imagine Bert Assirati would have had the strongest hands.
He did much of the power lifting and also special feats of strength and all that time training would have given him great hand strength. William Apollo Bankier judged him as a possible strongest man in the world.
Rematch would be well worthwhile
Great topic. Thanks. It was called a 'trial of strength'. In the early 1800s usually Lancashire catch wrestling contests started not with the back of the neck holds but with the hands snatched, like on this photo, wrestlers as they called it tried to feel each other's strength. It was very ancient tradition. The stronger man could put his opponent on his knees from that hold but the strongest could even press him all the way down on his back flat thus winning the match.
Of course and had far more credibility as an arm wrestler
One or two regularly appeared when ITV broadcast Arm Wrestling but cannot remember names