After more than a decade of bending bars and breaking records, Larry Wheels is searching for something new.
The 260 lb (118 kg) powerlifter and social media personality has spent the better part of his life chasing physical milestones, building a reputation on numbers that few athletes in the world can match. A bench press of 660 lbs (299 kg). A squat of 900 lbs (408 kg).
Fifteen years dedicated to bodybuilding and powerlifting. Yet despite everything he has achieved, Wheels recently admitted that something has changed internally.
“I’m not going to try and become the next world champion boxer or grappler. I just want to take the time I have today while I’m still young and learn,” Wheels said during a recent broadcast, explaining his growing interest in combat sports.
He then revealed that his passion for bodybuilding no longer feels the same as it once did.
“Because bodybuilding, powerlifting, I’ve done it for so many years. Fifteen years, bodybuilding. But I lost that, you know, that oomph that I used to have with it,” he admitted.
Rather than quietly stepping back from the spotlight, Wheels appears to be channeling that restlessness into an entirely different arena.
A recent visit to Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas brought that point home in the most direct way possible. Wheels had arrived at the grappling session with confidence, operating under the belief that sheer mass would carry him through.
“I only have to be strong. I’m just not gonna get down. When I hit the ground, the argument is made,” he said before the session began.
The mat had other ideas.
Former UFC competitor Justin Jaynes dismantled that logic swiftly. Working against the cage, Jaynes connected on a double-leg takedown that lifted Wheels completely off the ground before depositing him on the mat and settling into side control.
For a man accustomed to overpowering nearly everything in front of him, being handled so cleanly by a significantly lighter opponent was a sobering moment.
Things were no different against Cobey Fehr, an undefeated professional bantamweight signed with PFL who competes at 135 lbs (61 kg). Fehr used relentless pressure to funnel Wheels into the fence repeatedly, securing takedown after takedown.
When Wheels attempted to use his size advantage by bulldozing forward off the ground, Fehr responded with a clean sprawl, moved into a front headlock, and finished the sequence with an arm-in guillotine that forced Wheels to tap.
Walking back to his car afterward, Wheels offered no attempt to soften the experience. “I’m going to cry. I’m a b**ch. I got b**ched out,” he said.
