“Today, I have come to break the world record,” Ashraf Mahrous said in an interview in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Hurghada after the challenge.

This was a remarkable endeavor, but Ashraf Mahrous, famously called Kabonga, is no stranger to performing incredible acts of strength. Earlier this year, he amazed onlookers by pulling a train. He’s also hauled a locomotive alone and, four years prior, a truck.

With each achievement, his popularity has soared — children run after him in the streets, where he’s known simply as “strong man.”

With the ship pull, Mahrous, a 44-year-old native of the port city of Ismalia, hopes to get yet another recognition from the Guinness World Records.

The event unfolded at Hurghada’s shoreline. Mahrous first dragged a 700-ton vessel and, to solidify his challenge, he managed to move two ships with a combined weight of about 1150 tons.

“I pulled them both, by God’s grace, to show my friends and the whole world that I am blessed as the strongest man globally,” stated Mahrous.

He said the current Guinness World Record is a 614-ton ship set in 2018.

Mahrous said he will send videos and photos of his attempt to Guinness World Records to be evaluated.

To gear up for this event, Mahrous adhered to a diet rich in protein and iron, consuming around a dozen eggs, two chickens, and 5 kilograms of fish daily, while training for two hours, thrice a day.

This wasn’t his debut in ship pulling. Six years back, he spent two hours attempting and finally succeeded in moving a 4000-ton ship over a 30-meter distance, with a rope fastened to his shoulders. This accomplishment was recorded on video.

″I grunted and yelled as I pulled the ship, and I spoke to it, saying ‘It’s either me or you today,’” he told The Associated Press recently at his local gym in Cairo, where he trains daily.

Mahrous believes that speaking with the object he pulls beforehand helps him establish a connection and is key to his success. “It’s important for me to treat the object that I will pull as part of my body that moves along with my heart beat,” he said.

Mahrous, 190 centimetres tall and weighing 155 kilograms, said his strength emerged early.

As a child, he would carry his friends for fun and haul heavy loads, several gas cylinders at once on a wheelbarrow. He was nine when his father lost his job as a contractor in Iraq and after that, Mahrous began knocking on doors, offering to lift heavy items for some cash.

Once, he accidentally broke a friend’s arm when he tried to pull him as they played. He helped people move bricks, sandbags and other heavy materials — and he was fast. He loved sports and trained in kung fu, kickboxing and even established a wrestling team in Cairo.

It was only when his friends saw him easily flip giant tires 10 times in a row in a deserted courtyard at their gym and push a car using only a finger that they encouraged him to go for a world record.

“I was inspired by people who broke records and felt like they are no better than me,” he said. Now he’s less fearful of injuries and more concerned about failing to accomplish a pull.

In March, he was formally recognised by Guinness World Records for the heaviest rail pull: He pulled a train weighing 279 tons with a rope held by his teeth for a distance of nearly 10 metres. At the time, he received two other certificates, for the heaviest locomotive pull and for the fastest 100-metre road vehicle pull.

Mahrous, who is also president of the Egyptian Federation for Professional Wrestlers, was previously recognised by Guinness in June 2021, for pulling a 15,730-kilogram truck with his teeth. And in February 2024, the international franchise recognised him for cracking and eating 11 raw eggs in 30 seconds.

He wears a mouthguard during pulling events but says he has no concerns about his teeth. Instead of going to a dentist, he uses a miswak — a traditional teeth-cleaning twig rich in anti-bacterial compounds that help prevent decay.

He says he takes no supplements but eats, sleeps and works out at least twice every day.

His ambitions are far from over. Next, he plans to send a request to the Egyptian presidency for permission to pull a 263,000-ton submarine.

He also hopes someday to pull a plane using only his eyelid muscles.