Eric Spoto

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. 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]

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 #3 ranked raw bench presser in the world as of March 2020, when Julius Maddox set the American and world bench press record at 770 pounds 350 kg at the Arnold Sports Classic in Columbus.

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.

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