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 broke Mendelson's raw bench press world record of 715 pounds (324 kg). To achieve this, he paused his arm-wrestling career. Spoto became popular in the powerlifting scene after posting bench press videos on YouTube, showing him pressing in excess of 600 pounds (270 kg) for multiple repetitions while training at Mark Bell's Super Training Gym in Sacramento, California, with Stan Efferding and Creed Childress.

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 hitherto 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, his record having been broken by Kirill Sarychev in 2015, and the latter's record by Julius Maddox on 19 March 2020 with a 770 pounds 350 kg press 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