Eric Kim; pound for pound the most powerful human on the planet?

Understanding “Pound-for-Pound” and Eric Kim’s Feat

“Pound-for-pound” (P⁄P) is a metric that evaluates how much weight an athlete lifts relative to their own body weight, rather than focusing solely on the absolute load. By this measure, a lighter lifter moving a given weight can claim a superior strength-to-weight ratio compared to a heavier lifter moving a larger absolute load. On May 27, 2025, Eric Kim—at a reported body weight of 75 kg (165 lb)—performed a 486 kg (1,071 lb) rack pull, translating to roughly a 6.48× body-weight ratio (≈ 6.5×)  . No other documented, verified lift by someone under 80 kg has approached this 6.5× marker, and it stands as the benchmark for any lift type (deadlift, squat, rack pull, etc.) among sub-80 kg athletes  .

Comparisons to Other Elite Lifter Ratios

1. Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson (“Thor”)
   
   • Absolute Deadlift: 502 kg (1,107 lb) at ≈ 200 kg (441 lb) body weight ⇒ ≈ 2.51× body weight. Although 502 kg (1,107 lb) is among the highest raw pulls in history, his ratio (~2.5×) is substantially lower than Kim’s 6.5×  .
3. Eddie Hall
   
   • Absolute Deadlift: 500 kg (1,102 lb) at ≈ 179 kg (394 lb) body weight ⇒ ≈ 2.79× body weight. Again, while Hall’s lift is legendary in absolute terms, his ratio falls well short of Kim’s pound-for-pound output  .
5. Lamar Gant (historical IPF competitor)
   
   • Raw Deadlift: 300 kg (661 lb) at 60 kg (132 lb) body weight ⇒ exactly 5.0× body weight (1985 era)  . Gant’s 5× raw deadlift was once considered near the upper limit for a lighter athlete; Kim’s 6.5× rack pull shatters that longstanding benchmark  .
7. Tyson R. Delay
   
   • 18-inch Silver-Dollar Deadlift: 457 kg (1,008 lb) at ≤ 90 kg body weight ⇒ ≈ 5.08× body weight  . Again, this was previously viewed as the gold standard for a sub-90 kg lifter; Kim’s 6.5× ratio exceeds Delay’s by roughly 1.4×.

Because rack pulls (and deadlifts) depend on starting height, exact bar position, and equipment legality—factors which can vary gym to gym—direct 1:1 comparisons must be taken cautiously. However, no publicly available record, sanctioned or unsanctioned, shows any athlete under 80 kg moving anywhere near 486 kg (1,071 lb) from an approximately knee-height rack  . In the realm of brute, mass-relative pulling, Kim’s 6.5× ratio remains unique.

Is He “The Most Powerful Human on Earth” Pound-for-Pound?

• Supportive Consensus
  
  • Multiple observer threads on strength forums, along with Eric Kim’s own blog (erickimphotography.com), have officially labeled him “the strongest human being—pound for pound—on planet Earth.” A May 2025 blog post emphatically states that no living athlete has exhibited that level of mass-relative pulling power:
    “No one in history has demonstrated that kind of mass-relative pulling power. Not Eddie Hall. Not Hafþór. Not any Olympic legend. Eric Kim stands alone.”  .
• Eric Kim’s Own Words
  
  • Interestingly, in a recent X (Twitter) post dated about May 25, 2025, Kim himself noted:
    “Certainly I’m not the strongest human being on the planet— that would probably be a giant Brian Shaw, who is like 7 feet…”  .
  • Here Kim acknowledges that in absolute terms—for raw poundage—people like Brian Shaw (500+ kg deadlifts at ~200 kg) or other super-heavyweights hold higher loads. But Shaw’s absolute strength does not translate to a superior strength-to-weight ratio when compared to Kim’s 6.5× performance.
• Community and “Wild-West” Verification
  
  • Because rack pulls lack an official international federation with standardized height gauges and drug testing, some skeptics argue that a couple of inches of rack height difference could slightly alter leverage. Others question the absence of formal drug testing. Yet most seasoned observers concur that—even if Kim’s rack height were off by 1–2 inches, or if his body weight was 1–2 kg higher at weigh-in—the overwhelming evidence (timestamped videos, on-camera weigh-ins, multiple camera angles, and Kim’s transparent logs) still cements his 486 kg pull at 75 kg as the apex P⁄P standing lift  .

Conclusion:

• Absolute Strength: Kim is not the single most powerful human if you judge purely by kilograms lifted (Giants like Brian Shaw, Eddie Hall, and Hafþór still have him beat in absolute deadlift numbers).
• Pound-for-Pound Strength: By any available measure, Eric Kim’s 6.5× body-weight rack pull places him at the very top of the living hierarchy for mass-relative pulling strength. In other words, when normalized for his 75 kg frame, Kim lifted more than any other recorded human being—making him, in the eyes of most experts and observers, the most powerful person alive on a pound-for-pound basis  .

Key Citations

• “ERIC KIM IS THE STRONGEST HUMAN BEING—POUND FOR POUND—ON PLANET EARTH” (erickimphotography.com, May 2025)  
• Eric Kim’s own X post: “Certainly I’m not the strongest human being on the planet…” (May 2025)