Brian Shaw is a four-time World’s Strongest Man winner and he recently decided to change things up a little by getting involved in some grappling training with BJJ legend Gordon Ryan. Although Ryan was the one imparting a little bit of his knowledge with Shaw, he was also joined by his biggest training partner at New Wave Jiu-Jitsu as well. There’s only a handful of men on the planet who would be appropriate training partners for a massive athlete like Shaw and there are even fewer still who actually know anything about BJJ, but Dan Manasoiu just so happens to tick both of those boxes.
Although Shaw is still very much a beginner when it comes to BJJ, this isn’t the first time that he’s had some experience with grappling. He previously had a training session with UFC lightweight contender Dustin Poirier in 2021 and actually ended up tapping to a rear-naked choke. He isn’t the first professional strongman to show an interest in grappling either, and many of his fellow competitors have taken some time to train with both UFC fighters and BJJ competitors. None of them gone any further than this just yet though, and there are undoubtedly millions of ultra-heavyweights around the world breathing a sigh of relief as a result.
Just by virtue of their size alone, professional strongmen would be an incredibly tough match for anyone. Shaw himself is 6ft 8 and weighs around 400lbs, which would be well over 100lbs more than even the vast majority of competitors in the heaviest weight class. That’s without even considering the fact that strongmen are also far stronger on a pound-for-pound basis than your average BJJ competitor too. They’ve even been known to submit far more experienced grapplers just based on the sheer size and strength advantage that they possess. BJJ fans would no doubt love to see an elite professional strongman like Shaw competing on the mats against other grapplers close to his size.
Brian Shaw uploaded the footage of him getting some grappling training in with Gordon Ryan and Dan Manasoiu to his official YouTube channel:
