How Strong Was Ric Flair?
Professional wrestling legend Ric Flair is, by his own admission, a "stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin' and dealin' son of a gun." As one of the most esteemed legends of the ring, he gave the world five-star matches and top notch promos for decades, and lived such a lavish, jet-setting life that his finances ended up being worth a lot less than you might imagine.
Flair's in-ring prowess and personal excess are fairly well known, but there's one attribute of his that has received fairly little attention: His raw, physical strength. Flair was never the largest wrestler, and his style placed more emphasis on technical skill and, well, flair rather than steamrolling through his opponents. Even his finisher is the figure-four leglock, which isn't exactly a power move. Still, he has been in the game of throwing people around the ring for decades, so it makes sense that he's not exactly a weakling. So, let's see just how strong the man is!
The power of the Nature Boy
As Ric Flair told the BBC's Simon Mundie in an interview for his Don't Tell Me The Score podcast, he didn't particularly like the amount of physical training pro wrestling required when he was starting out. "On the first day it was running two miles outdoors in 30 degree weather," he says. "Then it was 250 push-ups, 500 free squats and 200 setups. It took me about six hours to do it all and I couldn't even walk after the free squats!" Flair actually attempted to quit wrestling before he even started, but his coach literally turned up at his house and forced him to return. After that, Flair trained without complaint, and was perfectly able to do 500 free squats on a daily basis. This is particularly impressive, because he drank alcohol pretty much daily, and often came to the gym straight from the bar.
Regardless of his copious drinking, Flair's monstrous training regime left him with a physique that is able to perform at an extremely high level even at an advanced age. In 2017, Kyle Newport of Bleacher Report told us that Flair was still able to deadlift a very impressive 400 pounds. Seeing as the Nature Boy was 67 years old at the time, it makes sense to assume that in his physical prime, Ric Flair was a very, very strong dude. Woo!