Raúl Abraham “Tayzon” Flores Castro took Mexico to the top of strength sports by lifting 511 kilograms—approximately 1,127 pounds—winning the World Deadlift Championship and setting the heaviest mark in the history of the discipline.
The Mexican athlete achieved the feat this Saturday, September 5, during the 2026 World Deadlift Championships, held at Utilita Arena in Birmingham, England, where he surpassed by one kilogram the record set in 2025 by Iceland’s Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
At just 26 years old, Flores became the new world deadlift champion and the first Mexican to hold the all-time record in this event under strongman rules, according to the official Giants Live results.
Flores began the competition with a 470-kilogram lift. Björnsson, also known as “The Mountain” for his role in the series Game of Thrones, lifted 480 kilograms but decided to withdraw from the event because of physical problems during his preparation.
The Mexican then asked for the bar to be loaded directly with 511 kilograms.
The weight moved quickly up to his knees, lost momentum as it passed his thighs and, for a few seconds, appeared to stop. Flores managed to fully extend his body and received the down signal from referee Magnús Ver Magnússon, a four-time winner of the World’s Strongest Man title.
Utilita Arena erupted when the Mexican released the bar and celebrated the lift. Björnsson returned from the competitors’ area to congratulate him and said that achieving such a mark at the age of 26 was difficult to believe, according to the championship’s official account.
The scale of the achievement can also be measured against Flores’ own body. Giants Live lists the Mexican as 1.75 meters tall and weighing approximately 165 kilograms, meaning that he lifted about 3.1 times his body weight, according to the athlete’s official profile.
At the 2025 World Deadlift Championships, Flores lifted 453.5 kilograms and finished tied for fourth place; he later increased his official record to 480 kilograms.
Weeks before traveling to Birmingham, he lifted 504 kilograms during a training session, although that performance could not be considered a world record because it did not take place during a competition. Giants Live had already identified him as one of the leading contenders after he completed three repetitions with 470 kilograms.
In one year, Flores added 57.5 kilograms to his mark at the world championship and broke through a barrier that had been dominated for years by figures such as Eddie Hall and Björnsson.
The nickname “Tayzon” comes from the dog who accompanied the athlete and whose death, he said, inspired him to begin training. Flores has his pet tattooed on his shoulder and had promised that one day he would make his name known.
“As I lifted the 511 kilograms, I realized that I was not just lifting a bar, I was lifting a promise,” he wrote after the competition in a post on his Instagram account.
“Tayzon, I promised you. I made you famous. We did it,” the Mexican added before closing his message with a warning about what lies ahead: “The dream is over. The story is just beginning.”
In sporting terms, the result makes Flores the strongest man in the world in the deadlift, but not the winner of the overall Strongman Open standings, a competition comprising five events.
The overall title went to Björnsson, who scored 50.5 points. Flores competed in the remaining four events and finished in 11th place with 20 points after focusing much of his preparation and energy on the world-record attempt.
His mark, however, already holds its own place in history: Raúl “Tayzon” Flores lifted more than half a metric ton, dethroned one of the biggest figures in strength sports and placed Mexico at the top of the deadlift world for the first time.
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