Six kilograms is a modest dumbbell, a small bag of dog food, or the gap between Raul Flores’ latest training pull and the heaviest deadlift ever completed under strongman judging.
Flores is 26, Mexican, and stands 175cm tall. He has just posted footage of himself pulling approximately 504kg in training. That puts him within roughly 6kg of Hafþór Björnsson’s official 510kg world record, set in Birmingham last September.
In September 2026, the two men share a platform.
Who is Raul Flores?
Giants Live lists him as Raul Abraham Flores Castro, known as “Tayzon,” born 9 May 2000. At 175cm and 165kg, the organisation describes him as the shortest athlete in the field for the 2026 Strongman Open and World Deadlift Championships. Until recently, he was not a name most strength fans outside Mexico would recognise.
Online strength culture has a habit of turning a single training clip into overnight relevance. Australian strongman Tom Haviland built a following the same way. Flores is now getting the same treatment, at a considerably higher weight.
The five heaviest strongman deadlifts
These are the heaviest recorded deadlifts performed with a standard bar under strongman rules. Straps and lifting suits are permitted, but suit specifications vary between events. Only lifts that exceeded the standing record at the time are marked as world records.
| # | Weight | Competitor | Location | Event | Equipment | World record? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 510 kg 1,124 lb | Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson | Birmingham, England | 2025 World Deadlift Championships | Standard bar Multi-ply suit |
Yes |
| 2 | 505 kg 1,113 lb | Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson | Bavaria, Germany | 2025 Eisenhart Black Deadlift Championships | Standard bar Multi-ply suit |
Yes |
| 3 | 501 kg 1,105 lb | Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson | Reykjavík, Iceland | 2020 World’s Ultimate Strongman: Feats of Strength | Standard bar Single-ply suit |
Yes |
| 4 | 500 kg 1,102 lb | Eddie Hall | Leeds, England | 2016 World Deadlift Championships | Standard bar Multi-ply suit |
Yes |
| 5 | 485 kg 1,069 lb | Peiman Maheripour | Tehran, Iran | 2024 Iran Strongest Men and Women’s Deadlift Championship | Standard bar Multi-ply suit |
No |
Rankings cover conventional strongman deadlifts using a standard bar. Elephant-bar, partial and hummer-tyre deadlifts are separate disciplines.
The Climb, and the Reality Check
Giants Live has acknowledged Flores completing three repetitions at 470kg in training this year. More recent footage claims two repetitions at 482.5kg, and now a single at approximately 504kg.
Here is the part the hype skips. At the 2025 World Deadlift Championships, on this same stage, Flores pulled 453kg in competition and missed 480kg. That is the gap between what a lifter produces in a controlled gym environment and what he produces with a referee, a clock and everyone watching. Flores now has to close roughly 50kg of that gap in a single competitive cycle.
Why 510kg is the number that matters
Only two men have ever pulled 500kg or more in a sanctioned strongman setting. Eddie Hall did it first, in competition, in 2016. Björnsson pulled 501kg in 2020 in a sanctioned event held in his own gym, a result that drew argument for years because it happened outside a normal competition. He settled the argument in July 2025 by pulling 505kg in formal competition, then went to 510kg at the same Birmingham arena in September, taking both the deadlift and overall titles. That is the number Flores is chasing.
A gym lift is not a judged lift
Flores’ pull used a deadlift suit, belt and straps, all permitted under this event’s rules, so their presence does not disqualify anything. What actually separates the video from a record is simpler: there was no competition referee, no official down signal, and no independent verification of the loaded weight. Flores’ own Instagram caption puts the figure at 504.4kg; other reporting has it at 504.04kg. Nobody has settled which is correct, and it does not need settling. Call it approximately 504kg and leave it there.
It is exactly the difference between a gym lift and a verified competition result. It looked like a completed pull. Whether it satisfies a strongman judge is a different question, and only Birmingham can answer it.
The showdown at a glance
| Comparison | Raul Flores | Hafþór Björnsson |
|---|---|---|
| Age | 26 | 37 |
| Height | 175 cm | 206 cm |
| Listed weight | 165 kg | 205 kg |
| Latest relevant lift | Approximately 504 kg in training | Official 510 kg world record |
| 2025 championship result | 453 kg | 510 kg |
*Flores’ 504 kg lift was performed in training and is not an official record.
The Showdown
The Strongman Open and World Deadlift Championships run at Utilita Arena, Birmingham, on Saturday 5 September. Björnsson returns to defend his title and extend his record. Flores is in the confirmed field, and the deadlift opens the event at 400kg.
Flores has already lifted enough to make the strength world pay attention. On 5 September, the bar will be loaded by somebody else, the referee will decide when it is finished, and the man who owns the record will be standing a few metres away. That is when 504kg stops being an extraordinary video and becomes evidence.
