By Stephen Smoot
Not long ago, a rising star in the sport of professional arm wrestling took on one of the sport’s all time American greats. Beau Horner of Keyser, who has earned one national championship, grappled with the legendary Bob Brown of Utah, one of the all-time greats who has earned world titles.
Brown, nearly 60 years old, has three decades of competition under his belt.
Horner is still looking ahead to his 30th birthday.
That age gap makes a difference in almost any other sport requiring strength, stamina, and risk of serious injury in competition, but not arm wrestling. When the world’s other great athletes have long since terminated their careers due to age or injury, arm wrestling’s unique style favors old man wise and old man strong.
The two men stood center stage at the finals East Versus West 18 in Chicago the day after West Virginia Day earlier this year in a Pay Per View television event.
Horner appears as a layman unfamiliar with the sport might expect a professional with years of experience to look – late 20s, a determined and almost Robert Mitchumesque countenance, arms massive and sculpted from endless hours in physical training and skills development.
Brown in his closely cropped silver hair and non-descript glasses resembles better a professional in an office more than athletic competition, but as Horner might say, don’t be fooled.
As he described, “we started, then slipped. Then we strapped up.”
At this point, competition officials wrap a nylon strap around the hands used by the athletes to ensure that they remain together until one of them prevails.
Describing the action in the match, Horner said “he started to bring me back over” then described his own countermove that, for a moment, “started bringing him down.” Then “coach told me to open top roll move” to be “able to bring him back over.”
At this point, age and experience pulled ahead in the match. “I tell everybody I’ve never faced the way Bob pulls, the way he sets up. He pulled me perfectly.”
Brown executed the move flawlessly and defeated the younger competitor. Horner concluded “I had a pretty good match” and shared his respect for the seasoned veteran still at the top of his game.
Professional arm wrestling has two geographic centers of interest and skill among competitors. Eastern Europe and the countries of the Black Sea littoral, such as Turkey, Georgia, Poland, and Russia see many of their athletes rise to the highest ranks. The United States has also produced some of the most accomplished athletes in the sport.
“Everybody arm wrestles in school,” shared Horner. “I was decent, but never the best.”
Horner, when at Keyser High School a decade ago, may not have been the best arm wrestler. He did, however, star on the varsity soccer team, win more matches (50) than any other wrestler in KHS history, and in his senior year won shuttle hurdles in the state track meet as his team took the WVSSAC title.
Horner competed at Keyser with the best group of athletes overall to come from that high school in this century. He then played for the Potomac State College soccer squad.
As many of his star athlete classmates joined the military, volunteered for fire and EMS squads, entered law enforcement, or pursued other traditional careers, Horner had his eyes on another path.
“When I was really young, Travis Bagent took me to some professional arm-wrestling matches,” he shared. Most are familiar with Travis Bagent’s son Tyson, who starred at quarterback for Shepherd University and now plays for the Chicago Bears. Fewer know that Travis Bagent earned 17 world titles in arm-wrestling and is called by some the greatest to ever compete in the sport.
Tyson Bagent told Chicago media that had the NFL not come calling, he likely would have followed his father’s path into professional arm-wrestling.
Horner opened his professional career in December of 2023 and has risen quickly since. In 2025, he has won 27 and lost two, earning a current ranking of 14th in the nation for the 190 weight class and 10th for 198. One of those losses came to the aforementioned Bob Brown, ranked seventh.
He has racked up the wins in different weight classes. These include the International Federation of Arm-Wrestling Nationals in Dayton, where he earned the title in the 189-pound weight class. Horner also took first place in the High Five Arnold Classic.
“My national title is what I’m most proud of,” he shared.
One of the intriguing and interesting aspects of the sport is, as Horner says, “you never know who’s good” just by looking at their age and physique. He shared how in his first year of competition, while still an amateur, he met in the finals at the Winter Blast event an opponent whose physique did not seem to indicate much strength.
“In less than a second, he pinned me,” he said.
Horner explained that some of the athletes sculpt their strength in the weightroom. Others, however, develop natural strength in the right places, such as wrists and forearms, because they spent their life farming, doing heavy duty repair or installation work, or difficult manual labor.
He says that they may not have developed the most impressive biceps, but have gained the same strength as workout warriors.
Height also does not give an automatic advantage. Horner often is the shorter competitor and has developed different techniques to gain leverage and advantages against taller opponents, often with a longer reach.
One of the unique aspects of the sport lies in an athlete in the prime of his career to also serve as a mentor and coach. Just as Travis Bagent brought Horner into the sport, Horner in turn wants to help to train and develop the sport’s next generation.
At 304 Fitness in Keyser, Horner holds weekly Friday evening training sessions at 5 p.m. His biggest session attracted 27 athletes from four states. One traveled three and a half hours one way to learn and train.
“I’m very diligent about safety,” he explained, going on to say that he will always halt a session once he sees one or both competitors in the “break arm position.” There, the arm is in an awkward position where the physical strength of the opponent could snap a bone.
The sport as a whole takes the fundamentals of safety very seriously. Horner noted that in 2 to 3,000 matches he has seen over the years, that he has seen only seven arm breaks and three torn biceps, another serious and painful injury.
From these sessions, Horner has built a team of competitors called Appalachian Arm Wrestlers. They travel to the same events as a team to compete.
Horner remains locked in on the goal he has not yet attained, a world championship. He shared that he qualified for a world level competition, but that it took place in the city of Baku, capital of the Asian nation of Azerbajian with a population similar to Houston, Texas.
“With the situation in the world as it is, I didn’t think it was safe,” Horner stated. With the sport still under the radar in a lot of ways, its fans watching on pay per view or online videos, the money for athlete security is not the same as for the National Football League or other sports with massive followings.
But the future is bright for professional arm-wrestling. Just as Ultimate Fighting Championship popularity started on VHS recordings of bouts fought in Colorado 30 years ago and passed around among enthusiasts, arm-wrestling is tailor made for the Tik-Tok generation.
Entire matches saturated with action start and finish in less time than the shortest clips and can circulate among millions very quickly.
As of now, however, those who compete do it not for fame or fortune, but for the love of competition and the ever-present desire to prove oneself against the best.
