MOBILE, Ala. — Tyler Davis did not just win the 2026 Pro Strongman League World Championships. He won every single event in it.
The Mobile strongman, competing in the 90-kilogram class in Irving, Texas, in August, became the first athlete in the league’s history to win three consecutive world titles and the first to sweep every event at a single show — a perfect clean sweep on the same weekend he completed the three-peat.
His wife, Megan Davis, made it a family podium, finishing third in the women’s 64-kilogram class and extending a streak of world championship podium finishes that now stretches back to 2023.
Both were defending champions coming in. Both said the show is their favorite weekend of the year.
“We’ve competed all over the world in several Strongman federations, and Pro Strongman League puts on the best show for the athletes,” said Megan, who first started dating Tyler at this same event in 2024. “It’s our favorite show of the year. Winning the Iron Crown trophy is a prestigious achievement in our sport.”
From Alma Bryant to the Iron Crown
Davis did not grow up in the sport. He played football and soccer at Alma Bryant High School in Irvington, then pushed athletics into the background while he earned two degrees at the University of South Alabama and started a business career.
The itch came back when he turned 30. He wanted something competitive again, and a friend named Chris Jacheo — who had some training equipment and went on to become his first coach — introduced him to strongman. Titles followed. None of them looked like what happened in Irving.
Davis is 38 now, which in a sport increasingly dominated by athletes a decade younger is worth noting. He notices it too.
“We had a fun group of 13 guys from a few different countries who are without a doubt some of the strongest 90-kilogram men in the world,” Davis said. “I’m 38 years old now, but I’m still hanging in there at the top of the sport. There is a lot of young talent coming up, and I work hard to maintain my position.”
Finishing second behind Davis was Justin Floyd, a 21-year-old from Missouri. Third place went to Dane Bonin, a 41-year-old from Massachusetts.
Event by Event: Davis’ Sweep in the 90-Kilogram Class
Competing at 90 kilograms — 198.4 pounds — Davis recorded these marks across the championship:
- Event 1: An escalating deadlift that finished with a 700-pound pull.
- Event 2: Two rounds of a 285-pound axle press overhead, into a 150-pound single-arm kettlebell press overhead, into a 225-pound sandbag press overhead.
- Event 3: A 55-pound sandbag thrown for height over a bar.
- Event 4: A carry with 285-pound farmers’ handles in each hand for 20 feet with three deadlifts, then a carry with 315-pound handles in each hand for 20 feet.
- Event 5: An 800-pound yoke carried 40 feet, into a 285-pound log clean and press for three reps.
- Event 6: A sandbag-to-shoulder, carry and load medley with three bags weighing 275, 300 and 325 pounds.
Six events. Six wins. For perspective, the 800-pound yoke is more than four times his own body weight, moved 40 feet, before he then picked up a 285-pound log and put it over his head three times.
What These Events Actually Are
Strongman borrows almost nothing from a conventional gym, and the event names do not explain themselves. Here is what the implements in Irving demand.
- Yoke carry. A loaded steel frame rests across the athlete’s upper back and shoulders, like a barbell squat that has to walk. The load sits high, so it sways. Bracing the trunk hard enough to keep the frame from steering the athlete is most of the event; the walking is the easy part.
- Farmers walk. Two loaded handles, one per hand, carried for distance or time. It is limited less by leg strength than by grip — the hands usually give out before anything else does. Adding deadlifts mid-carry, as this show did, forces the athlete to reset a failing grip repeatedly.
- Log press. A hollow cylindrical log with handles set inside it, cleaned from the floor to the chest and then driven overhead. The neutral grip and the log’s thickness push the load forward of the athlete’s center of gravity, which makes it far harder than a barbell of the same weight.
- Axle press. Same idea, different bar. An axle is a thick, non-rotating steel bar, typically about two inches in diameter. Because it does not spin, the wrists cannot roll under the bar cleanly during the clean, and because it is thick, it punishes grip. Athletes routinely press substantially less on an axle than on a standard barbell.
- Sandbag medley. A series of bags of increasing weight, shouldered or loaded onto a platform in sequence against the clock. Sandbags do not balance. They shift as they are lifted, which means raw strength alone does not solve them; the athlete has to hug the bag tight to the body and drive with the legs and hips.
- Deadlift ladder. Weight climbs each round until athletes fail. It is the closest thing in strongman to a pure maximal-strength test.
- Sandbag throw. A bag thrown backward over a raised bar for height, contested until only one competitor clears.
Scoring is cumulative. Athletes earn points based on their placing in each event, and the highest total across the full slate wins the show. That structure is why a clean sweep is so rare: an athlete can win a championship comfortably while losing two or three events, because strongman deliberately rewards different body types in different disciplines. A tall athlete with long arms is advantaged on a deadlift and disadvantaged on an overhead press. A shorter, thicker athlete is the reverse. Winning all of them, in a field of the best in the world at that body weight, means beating every one of those specialists at their own specialty.
How Weight Classes Work in Strongman
Unlike powerlifting, which slices competitors into many narrow bodyweight bands, strongman uses relatively few and relatively wide classes, because the sport is testing all-around capability rather than a single lift.
Men’s divisions are commonly drawn at under 80 kilograms, under 90, under 105, under 120 and open, with sanctioning bodies using slightly different cutoffs — the Strongman Corporation, for example, sets its classes at 175, 200, 231 and 265 pounds plus a super heavyweight tier. Women’s divisions are typically under 64 kilograms, under 73, under 82 and open.
Athletes weigh in before the contest and compete inside their class, and the implements are loaded to a weight appropriate to that class. The best-known events in the sport — World’s Strongest Man among them — are open-weight contests with no cap at all, which is why weight-class championships exist as a separate track. The 90-kilogram division Davis won is an aggressively lean one: an athlete has to carry enough muscle to move an 800-pound yoke while staying under 198.4 pounds on the scale.
Megan Davis Keeps a Podium Streak Alive
Megan Davis grew up in Scotland and found strongman after moving to New Zealand, where she won three national titles. Alabama has not slowed her down. In 2025 she was crowned America’s Strongest 64-Kilogram Woman, and a few months later she added the Strongest Woman on Earth title in the 68-kilogram division at the Shaw Classic, the Loveland, Colorado, contest founded by four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw.
At the Pro Strongman League World Championships she finished second in 2024 and first overall in 2025. This year was a harder road, in a field of the best 64-kilogram — 141-pound — strongwomen in the world. She took third, behind winner Camilla Fogagnolo of Australia and runner-up Diana Ferrer of Mexico, making the podium for a third straight year.
Her marks during the show:
- Event 1: A 495-pound deadlift max.
- Event 2: Two rounds of a 175-pound axle press overhead, into an 88-pound single-arm kettlebell press overhead, into a 125-pound sandbag press overhead.
- Event 3: A 30-pound sandbag thrown over a 13-foot bar.
- Event 4: A carry with 185-pound farmers’ handles in each hand for 20 feet with three deadlifts, then a carry with 215-pound handles in each hand for 20 feet.
- Event 5: A 455-pound yoke carried 40 feet, into a 170-pound log clean and press for three reps.
A 495-pound deadlift at 141 pounds of body weight is roughly three and a half times her own weight.
“I was so proud of how Megan performed during the show and how wonderful she is to all the other athletes,” Tyler said. “She has not missed a podium at a world championship since 2023. She is the definition of consistency and even more importantly, good sportsmanship.”
Building a Team Back Home
Davis said competing has pushed him toward something beyond his own results: getting more people into the sport.
“Strongman is the first sport that I can honestly say I have felt passionate about,” he said. “I think about it every day, and I have built a great community called Ströng Crüe. We are a team mostly from around the region. We chat every day and support each other in our Strongman pursuits.”
A Chance to Try It: Strongman Showdown at The Grounds, Oct. 31
Gulf Coast residents curious about what any of this feels like will not have to travel to Texas to find out.
The second annual Strongman Showdown at The Grounds is set for Oct. 31 during the Greater Gulf State Fair at 1035 Cody Road North in Mobile. The fair itself runs Friday, Oct. 30, through Sunday, Nov. 8, which puts the competition on the fair’s first Saturday.
Listed events include:
- Axle deadlift
- Keg toss
- Sandbag to shoulder
- Monster dumbbell
- Carry and drag
The monster dumbbell is exactly what it sounds like: an oversized single dumbbell, cleaned and pressed overhead with one arm, with a handle thick enough that holding on is half the battle. The keg toss sends a weighted keg backward over a raised bar. The carry and drag pairs a loaded carry with a dragged implement, usually back to back, which turns a strength event into a conditioning event in a hurry.
Importantly for anyone reading this and doing the math on an 800-pound yoke, the Showdown is not limited to elite lifters.
“There are novice classes for people brand new to the sport,” Davis said. “So, sign up and give it a shot.”
Registration details and training information are available through the Davises’ website.