The biggest meeting that world's current best pullers had was 2014 A1. Dave Chaffee, Denis Cyplenkov, Andrey Pushkar, John Brzenk, Ferit Osmanli, Oleg Zhokh, Hadzimurat Zoloev, Evgeni Prudnyk, Olexy Semerenko, Todd Hutchings and many other top overall athletes were involved in that event.As we all know that in such events the draw play an important role but we still have our own jusgement ability even though the opinions may be different. From what i have seen the world's top 3 best pullers as of today are Denis Cyplenkov, Dave Chaffee and Andrey Pushkar.

I can already hear some of the top pullers complaining as "i have beaten that guy" but the time is flying and the things are changing quickly. These are only my opinions and i respect people who disagrees as well. I believe that Pushkar has been much stronger now than he was a few years ago. His wins over John Brzenk who was at his heaviest ever, was very impressive.

It is hard to count Pushkar's wins over Denis in last A1 because Denis and Dave had killed eachother right before Pushkar pulled Denis. I am not saying that Pushkar could not have beaten Denis but it is hard to say the opposite either. Dave Chaffee and Denis looked at same level and to me it seemed like Dave needs a new game plan to beat Denis who is going outside.

Dave was succesful against Denis when Denis tried to hook him in 2013 Nemiroff event. But so far Denis has been the succesful one since he decided to go outside even though they sometimes end up in semi hook and hook. IMO Dave should try to beat Denis in the way that John beat Denis in Vegas. Of course that since that time Denis became stronger and technically better but still pronator controlled side pressure seems to be the way to beat Denis.

It is very difficult to judge the possible outcome of Dave vs Pushkar match because both have great starts. I would give the start edge to Pushkar but i believe that Dave has more horse power once (and if) the match stops. Other than these 3 athletes only M.Todd can be a threat even though John Brzenk has chance to beat M.Todd with his great knowledge and table intelligence. But I do not give big chance to John against these 3 mentioned monsters (Dave, Denis and Pushkar). M.Todd on the other hand has chance against these 3 pullers because they may not have the tools to unlock M.Todd's unusual pulling style.

Of course we also expect Alexy Voevoda to be as competetive as any of these top athletes but it is still too early to have an opinion that can be based on any action. I really hope that all of these mentioned athletes will have opportunity to pull eachother to prove the armwrestling world who the best armwrestler in the world is.  

Engin Terzi