Ah, so you’re looking to go from under-the-sea to Over The Top. Naturally, you need to know, “could I wrestle an octopus?” Well, you best call up Sir Mix-A-Lot. Because while the answer is technically yes, it comes with some big buts.

Let’s start with a simple, yet important one. Sure, they have 8 arms, but:

Is an Octopus Capable of Arm-Wrestling?

Here’s some good news, this answer gets cool right off the bat. Yes, they are. While an octopus swims around its arms can look a little floppy and sloppy. That’s misleading though, their arms are made entirely of muscle. Their arms are strong and flexible, making them a worthy contender.

Not having bones and joints like our arms would seem to be a problem. After all, how do you set up a match without placing your elbow on the table? Fortunately, octopuses are excellent mimics.

Recently, the mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus Mimicus) has been earning some well-deserved internet fame.

While octopuses are already known for their camouflage, changing both skin colour and texture to blend in, the mimic takes it a step further. They can change their body shape and movement to look like other animals, or hide arms to look like a venomous snake to ward off predators.

But for something as simple as an arm, most species of octopus will do. They can make a pretty good imitation of a human arm by stiffening the arm and creating specific bending points to mimic an elbow.

Basically, if an octopus wants to, it’s capable of turning an arm into a human-like shape that it could use to arm-wrestle effectively.

So the arm’s all good, but they don’t have hands:

Do Octopuses Have Good Dexterity?

If you’ve ever tried to lay the smackdown on someone arm-to-arm style, you’ll know that dexterity is important for arm wrestling. Techniques like top-rolling make the match focus more on wrist and finger strength rather than biceps. So dexterity and a good grip matter.

The maneuverability and flexibility of an octopus’ arm extend right to the tip. It’s strong and muscular the whole way through. On top of that, they have their infamous suckers.

An octopus’ suckers seem to be capable of a nigh-unbreakable grip on just about anything. Underwater, they need to grab onto wet, rough, and uneven surfaces and hold on tight.

A 2014 study took a look at how they pull this off. It was already known that the sucker shape and flexibility allowed them to create a seal to grab on to surfaces. However, they were able to keep a grip on uneven surfaces that seem like they should break the seal.

Upon closer inspection, they found concentric grooves all along the edges of each sucker. These grooves create individual low-pressure seals. Together, these grooves can make up for any lost pressure on the primary seal while grasping a rough surface.

Some octopuses have suction strength powerful enough to tear human flesh. So you’ll want to pick your opponent wisely - and maybe wear some gloves.

An octopus’ grip isn’t just strong, it’s functional. You may have seen videos of them showing of their intelligence and dexterity unscrewing bottles to get at prey inside.

Alright, so it’s got the tools, but:

Can You Teach an Octopus to Arm-Wrestle & to Want to Win?

The term bird-brained may need to be rethought. An octopus has a brain about the size of a bird’s. And yet, they’re one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. They can not only be easily taught, but they’re also masters of teaching themselves new tricks.

If it weren’t for their short lifespans, it’s believed octopuses would likely reach a similar intelligence to dolphins. They are left to their own devices and have a reputation as great problem solvers. In labs, they’re always finding impressive ways to beat new puzzles - so long as they’re incentivized.

For something as simple as arm-wrestling, an octopus is capable of learning the mechanics. But, you have to make it worth their while.

Start with supplying a treat for doing the right actions, and change to only rewarding a win. This should provide enough incentive and encouragement.

However, octopuses like to win and they don’t care about cheating. Getting one to actually follow the rules consistently might be a challenge, And would likely take a lot more training (hoping the octopus doesn’t get bored first).

So really, to make this work you’d have to find the right octopus. They have different personalities, interests, and habits from one individual to the next. If you can find one that is interested in performing this same task over and doesn’t tend to cheat - that’s your champ.

Okay, so it’s at least technically possible to arm-wrestle an octopus, but could I win?

How Strong is an Octopus?

An octopus is a strong animal. Some species have been observed lifting as much as 40 times their own body weight. And larger species are famous for snapping the spines of sharks. These are powerful animals. The giant Pacific octopus can lift at least 35 lb with a single sucker.

Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any in-depth studies on just how much an octopus can deadlift. So we don’t really have a good picture of their upper limit. Instead, this question will sit in the same pile as, “how much can a gorilla bench,” until lab scientists get rad and start focusing on the questions we really want to know.

In the meantime, let’s put the focus on how their strength, arm vs arm, would compare against a human. Well, this is going to depend on how you stack it up. There are around 300 unique species of octopus ranging from 2.5 cm to arm spans over 14 ft.

The good news is, that means there are octopuses small enough that you could definitely out-muscle them in an arm-wrestling match. But, if you’re going to try for a fair fight, that’s where the trouble starts.

Creating A Fair Matchup

Size-wise, most octopuses are either much smaller or bigger than humans. The average human arm span (1.75 m) is a little less than twice the length of a common octopus arm span (1 m).

Weight matchups are even harder. The largest species, the giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus Dofleini) averages about 33 lbs. Although the largest ever scientifically documented got up to 156 lbs.

An arm-wrestling match actually takes away from some of the advantages an octopus has. First, they don’t have the combined strength and abilities of all 8 arms. The second is that they lose their python-like ability to constrict. An octopus would rather strangle your arm than try to push it down.

Still, despite losing these advantages an octopus is still capable of beating a human in an arm-wrestling match - depending on the matchup. To give an idea of how we’d stack up we created three separate, theoretical matches.

Round 1. Man vs Blue-Ringed Octopus

Weighing in at an unimpressive 28 grams and with arms just 10 cm long, the blue-ringed octopus stands little chance. That being said, it’s a pretty adorable animal, which could take down your intensity.

Still, they are far too small to stand much of a chance. Even if you went limp, they don’t have the power to push a human around. This match goes to the human, and it’s not even close to being close.

However, despite its size, the blue-ringed octopus is one of the most venomous marine animals on the planet. A single one has enough venom to kill 26 humans - which really makes you question the person holding it above.

Regardless, even though you may win the arm-wrestling match, you may not live to brag about it.

Round 2. Man vs The Common Octopus

A common octopus (Octopus Vulgaris) is, you guessed it, one of the more common octopuses. When you think of an octopus, they’re probably what you’re picturing. They’re also, by far, the most heavily studied species of octopus. So most offhand octopus facts you know are likely to be about these guys specifically.

The Octopus Vulgaris is far more substantial than the last guy. They’re still smaller than the average adult and they are only a fraction of our weight. Still, they can offer a lot more power than the blue-ringed octopus.

The common octopus would put up a better fight and be able to offer resistance. However, while they are excellent grapplers, they wouldn’t be able to push as well with a single arm as a human can.

Their ability to make their arms rigid wouldn’t match the structural rigidity of human bones and joints. Any adult in average physical shape can use their better leverage to beat a common octopus in arm-wrestling.

Man is the victor, although the suckers could potentially leave some nasty marks on your hands.

Round 3. Man vs The Giant Pacific Octopus

We’re bringing in the big guns here, and unsurprisingly, the tides are about to turn. Although the giant Pacific octopus (GPO) is far outweighed by the average adult, they are much larger. They’re also a whole lot stronger than the last two contenders.

The long arms of the GPO offer much better leverage. Combining this with their immense strength could give them more of a fighting chance.

But their real match ender is their grip. These guys are powerful enough that they could break the bones in your hand (if they were so inclined) even with the ends of their arms. The top arm-wrestlers get the edge with their crushing grip, and that’s a skill that falls directly into this octopus’ wheelhouse.

Octopuses really aren’t designed to excel at arm-wrestling, but at a certain size they are capable of overpowering us.

But, Should I Arm-Wrestle an Octopus?

Are you asking from a safety standpoint, or from an ethical standpoint? Safety-wise you should remember that these are wild animals. Even the ones you could beat are capable of doing damage if they feel threatened (although escape is usually their first choice). But from an ethical standpoint…also no.

It would be pretty hard to argue that intentionally wrestling an octopus, in any capacity, doesn’t fall under some form of animal abuse. Octopuses are intelligent, incredible creatures that continually surprise us with their ingenuity. So let’s keep the arm-wrestling to theoreticals.

And as long as we’re testing theoreticals…

Bonus: Can an Octopus Arm-Wrestle 8 Other Octopuses?

Absolutely, it can. For us, having two separate simultaneous arm-wrestling matches would be a challenge. We’d be capable, but not effective. The divided attention would keep us from performing at our best in either arm. But that’s not the case for octopuses.

Each of an octopus’ arms has its own brain. How misleading that statement it, depends a little on whose theories you go after. But the two main ones are that they have:

1. A brain in each arm capable of independent thought.
2. The octopus can assign tasks to individual arms which can continue to follow the tasks independently of the central brain.

In either case, an octopus could be in up to 8 separate arm-wrestling matches without suffering from their arms having divided attention.

In fact, if an octopus’ arm is severed the arm will continue to act normally for up to an hour. In that time it will grasp for prey and will attempt to feed its mouth (or rather, where its mouth would be). Or, in this case, may even continue wrestling. The octopus itself will then regenerate a new arm which can go on to arm-wrestle a 9th contender.

Pluralization

Hey, why do you keep saying octopuses? I thought it was octopi. We use octopuses, but octopi, octopodes and octopuses are all acceptable plurals of octopus.