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Ermes Gasparini

Personal information
Nickname	The Gladiator (Il Gladiatore)
Nationality	Italian
Born	1993 (age 32–33) Verona, Veneto, Italy
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	130 kg (290 lb)
Sport
Country	Italy
Sport	Arm wrestling

Ermes Gasparini (born 1993) is an Italian professional armwrestler from Verona who competes in the super heavyweight division. He has been active in international competition and has participated in both amateur and professional formats.^[1] Nicknamed "The Gladiator" (Italian: Il Gladiatore), he has been often listed inside the global top three in the category from 2022 to 2026.

Gasparini has won titles at the World Armwrestling Federation (WAF) World Armwrestling Championships and at European Armwrestling Federation (EAF) European Championships. In addition to federation tournaments, he has partcipated in professional supermatch events including King of the Table (KOTT) and East vs West (EvW), where he has faced opponents including Levan Saginashvili, Devon Larratt, and others across the super heavyweight category.^[2]

Gasparini was born in 1993 in Verona, in the Veneto region of northern Italy.^[3] He grew up in a sporting household, practising karate, swimming and boxing as a child, but armwrestling was central to his upbringing because his father, Massimo Gasparini, was an established Italian armwrestler who introduced him to the sport at a young age.^[4][3] Outside the sport, Gasparini has worked as a marble cutter, the trade he learned from his father.^[4]

Gasparini's first major international result came at the 2013 WAF World Armwrestling Championships in Gdynia, Poland, where he won the Junior 21 (under-21) men's 85 kg category on both the right arm and the left arm, becoming a double junior world champion.^[5]

Gasparini moved to the senior division in 2014 and competed regularly at WAF World and EAF European Championships through the mid-2010s, picking up additional medals across the heavyweight and super heavyweight categories.^[6] In the same year he placed second in his class at the Zloty Tur / Nemiroff World Cup in Rumia, Poland, losing the final to Evgeny Prudnik.^[6]

His amateur appearances became less frequent toward the end of the decade as he transitioned to professional super-match competition. In July 2018, the unofficial XSportNews expert rankings panel removed him from its world list because of a year-long absence from amateur events, and he was reinstated only after he returned to the international circuit in 2019.^[1]

Gasparini's first major North American appearance came at WAL 505 on 15 August 2019 at Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he lost a feature right-arm super-match to Matt Mask by 1–3.^[7][8]

In 2021, the Professional Armwrestling League (PAL) qualified Gasparini for its flagship Top-8 super heavyweight league. He was originally scheduled to face Alex Kurdecha in a transitional match, but Kurdecha was unable to travel to the qualifier from Poland for documentation reasons, and Gasparini was given direct entry into the main pool. A super-match against Dmitry Trubin was scheduled for late 2021 but did not take place after Trubin sustained an injury, and Kurdecha was reinstated as Gasparini's intended opponent.^[9]

Gasparini has been one of the most regular international competitors in the King of the Table super-match series, held in Dubai by Coresports.^[10]

At KOTT 2 on 11 December 2021, he defeated Genadi Kvikvinia 4–2 on the right arm in a six-round super heavyweight super-match. At KOTT 3 on 2 April 2022, he defeated Wagner Bortolato 4–1 on the left arm.^[10]

At KOTT 6 on 25 February 2023, Gasparini lost the headline super heavyweight super-match to Levan Saginashvili by 2–4. Saginashvili won the first four rounds and then withdrew owing to health concerns, conceding the final two rounds; it was the first time in his professional super-match career that he had given up any rounds.^[11]

At KOTT 9 on 9 December 2023, Gasparini defeated Vitaly Laletin 4–2 on the right arm, a result regarded in the armwrestling press as one of the marquee wins of his career.^[10][2]

Gasparini was originally booked to face Denis Cyplenkov at KOTT 11 on 1 June 2024 in Dubai. The match was cancelled in the run-up to the event because of Cyplenkov's recurring health problems and did not take place.^[12]

Gasparini has competed regularly in East vs West (EvW), the super-match series founded in 2021 by Engin Terzi and held principally in Istanbul. The results below are recorded in the official EvW Sports archive and the Armwrestling Archives results compilation.^[13][14]

At EvW 1 on 12 June 2021 in Istanbul, Gasparini defeated Matt Mask 4–1 on the right arm in the inaugural super-match of the series. At EvW 2 on 12 February 2022 in Istanbul, he defeated Arif Ertem 3–0 on the right arm. At EvW 5 on 19 November 2022 in Istanbul, he defeated Dave Chaffee 3–0 on the right arm, but later on the same card he lost 0–3 to Artyom Morozov on the left arm. At EvW 8 on 29 July 2023 in Istanbul, he defeated Jerry Cadorette 3–0 on the right arm. At EvW 9 on 26 August 2023 in Istanbul, he lost 0–3 on the right arm to Devon Larratt in a World Super Heavyweight Title super-match. At EvW 12 on 20 April 2024 in Istanbul, he lost 0–3 on the left arm to Alizhan Muratov, on a card headlined by Saginashvili's 4–0 win over Larratt. At EvW 16 on 15 February 2025 in Tbilisi, Georgia, he defeated Michael Todd 3–0 on the right arm. At EvW 18 on 21 June 2025 in Chicago, Illinois, he lost 0–5 to Saginashvili in a World Right-Arm Super Heavyweight Title rematch.^[15] At EvW 22 on 28 February 2026 in Vienna, Austria, he did not compete and appeared as a guest commentator.^[13]

As of 2026, Gasparini's combined head-to-head super-match record across the major professional series stands at eight wins and five losses.^[2]

Gasparini is principally a top-roll specialist, using his arm length, hand control and wrist pressure to break opponents' grips and pull them toward the pad. He has produced instructional video material covering the top-roll, hook and press techniques, indicating fluency in all three major right-arm styles.^[16] He is regularly cited in the armwrestling press for his ability to compete on equal terms with super heavyweights who outweigh him by 30 to 50 kilograms, including Saginashvili, Laletin and Kvikvinia.^[4]

His nickname, "The Gladiator" (Il Gladiatore), reflects his combative style and Italian heritage. He is the most internationally prominent Italian armwrestler of his era and represents Italy at WAF World Championships and EAF European Championships. He has also collaborated with the Italian federation (S.B.F.I.) on national super-match events, including the annual Italian Supermatch in Brescia, where in 2017 he pulled a five-round vendetta against Michael Todd, narrowly losing 2–3 in front of a home crowd.^[17]

Gasparini lives in the Verona area, where he has worked as a marble cutter alongside his father Massimo. He runs a coaching business through his website, ermesgasparini.com, where he sells instructional video courses and offers in-person and online private coaching.^[16]

• Official website
• Ermes Gasparini on Instagram
• Ermes Gasparini on Facebook