Andrew “Cobra” Rhodes is the first foreign armwrestler that I had ever heard when I started armwrestling. I was just a beginner and the whole Turkish team was talking about how great he was. I had the video tapes from 1989 Greece, 1990 USA, 1991 Israel and 1992 Switzerland World Championships. As a beginner I was amazed of his pulling personality as much as his skills at the table. His outside hit and hand control was amazing. He was not only a World Champion but also was a colourful promotion for armwrestling. He was not only armwrestling but also putting a great show at the table. His face was all about mind controlling for his opponents. His nick name was Cobra and he was bringing his tongue out of his mounth while pulling. People were watching a show more than armwrestling. He must have been the most entertaining armwrestler ever in his best years.
In late 80’s and early 90s he was dominant in the armwrestling world. He had some losses but some of them were very unfair and I will not involve any names neither any incident in this article. After winning 1989-1991-1992 and 1993 WAF’s he was absent for some years. He did not do so great when he returned but it took only 2 years him to dominate the worlds again. In 1999 he went to Russia for the Worlds. It was in Vladicavcaz, Ossetia which is the land of the best armwrestlers in the World. And it was in the years that Russians were mostly dominating the WAF events. There was two World Champion Russians waiting for him. Shamil Karajaev and Alex Mundishvili. These two athletes were the finalists of 1998 WAF in Egypt in 70kg and now they both were in 75kg. But there was another Russian Genady Fadzinov who became WAF Champion only 2 years later. Russians made him represant Azerbaijan somehow. Cobra seemed to be in trouble from an outside judgement but he beat all these three guys one after another. But his greatness did not end with winning his category only. He competed the overalls against the huge Russians and Georgians. The Georgian Vaghtang Javahadze had major problems against 75kg Cobra, even though Javahadze had many wins against Alan Karaev during his career. Cobra also pulled in 2000 WAF in USA to win his sixth WAF title in senior classes.
In my book he is best ever light weight full hand toproller. He has beaten or troubled many of the top heavyweight guys. He is a Legend in my book and he inspired me and hundreds or maybe even thousands of other armwrestlers. He at his 50s to still pull effectively has my utmost respect. He is just like Brzenk seems like to born to armwrestle, the only difference is that Brzenk can pull at the highest level in any tecnique of armwrestling while Cobra is an outside Legend.
I wish him the best of luck in his life and thank him for the things that he has been adding positive things to the Sport of Armwrestling.
Engin Terzi