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.
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). At that time he was one of the three four-time winners (the other two being Jón Páll Sigmarsson and Magnús Ver Magnússon).
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.
Read more about this topic: Mariusz Pudzianowski
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