Travis Bagent is one of the world's most famous fighters.His popularity stems from his character, charisma and his achievements. Bagent never abandoned armwrestling, though some think he's lost his game and went down in the ranks. In this series of articles on this exceptional armwrestler we will try to understand, why Travis is not in his top form, and is he still a threat to the strongest in the world.

Let me stress that Travis has beaten people like John Brzenk, Alexey Voevoda, Andrey Pushkar, Devon Larrat, Dmitrij Trubin or Richard Lupkes. The list goes on, and is a great testimony to his place in the world of armwrestling.

In 2005 in the Vendetta, Bagent beat Alexey Voevoda in left arm in a few consecutive bouts. He proved he was top again. After that he had his ups and downs, but one thing was for sure – he fights only the best.

2011 was the most exceptional year in Travis' carreer. We're talking about the Nemiroff World Cup. Even during the press conference Bagent wasn't the person the fans wanted to see. He didn't curse, he insulted nobody, he was relatively calm and collected. Everyone knew he came from across the ocean, he had to acclimatize. That;s what people thought. The first day of the tournament showed that he was no competition to Tsyplenkov, though everybody bet on Bagent.

The American lost to Andrey Pushar twice, came second in the category. In the OPEN, Dmitry Trubin avenged his loss to Travis by beating him. All that led to the end of left-arm rivalry. The next day was right arm. There was a shadow of hope for Travis, but his first loss made it disappear. He beat only one opponent, and couldn;t get to the OPEN.

Since that, Bagent's position has weakened. But he never quit armwrestling, he still competes. And yet, for a long time no European fighter had a chance to check how strong Bagent is now. Is he any competition to the best of the world? Read on in the next article to find out.

Artur Grigorian