"I'm the fittest man in the world!" That may be. But why does Rob Powell have zero to show for it? Because the previous title holder cornered the market. And hired great lawyers

Men's Fitness, Dec, 2003 by David Kushner

But Powell shrugs it off. He's a machine on a mission. And though the world hasn't caught on yet, he knows exactly who he is: "I'm the champion. Now let me get a pen and write down my injuries for you!"

MAN VS. DOG

Powell's been trying to
lack down the fittest man
title for years, but his
gretest competitor's
been right under his nose.
The rogue's name? Wolf.
Powell's very own
German shepherd.

   ROB POWELL            WOLF
AGE: 42, 190 lbs    AGE: 5, 110 lbs

ENDURANCE      Wolf and Powell's main workout consists
               of a run of seven miles, lasting 45 minutes.
               If the temperature is lower than 60 degrees,
               Powell says Wolf can outpace him.
ADVANTAGE      Draw

SPEED          On Sundays, both swim a 650-foot-wide
               channel. Wolf can reach the other side sooner,
               something Powell attributes to his having
               "very webbed feet for a dog."
ADVANTAGE      Wolf

FEATS OF       Together they've traversed several of the
STRENGTH       country's highest peaks, including Mt. Elbert--the
               highest point in Colorado at 14,433 feet.
ADVANTAGE      Draw

POWER          Powell has lifted up to 300,000 pounds to
               win his World Fitness Championships. Wolf
               used to run weighted with a five-pound vest,
               "but he grew out of it," says Powell.
ADVANTAGE      Powell

FLEXIBILITY    Powell can touch his toes. Wolf can lick his ...
               Wolf has amazing flexibility.
ADVANTAGE      Wolf

WINNER         Wolf, by a whisker

World fitness champ Rob Powell wants to turn extreme physical challenges into a new sport ("I'm the Fittest Man in the World!" on page 76), but profiler DAVID KUSHNER intends to steer clear. The New York-area writer admits: "In order to participate, I'd have to cram a lifetime of exercise into a single day." Kushner is a contributing editor to Spin and writes for Wired and Rolling Stone. His book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture is on bookshelves now.

During the past 15 years, ROGER BLACK, chairman of Danilo Black, Inc., has redesigned (among tons of others) Reader's Digest, Esquire, Premiere, and the Los Angeles Times. This year his design of Budget Living helped earn it Adweek's "Launch of the Year" title. "The recent redesign of Men's Fitness doesn't attempt to change the magazine dramatically; it's just the first step in improving it," Black says. "Readers will see experiments in the next several issues. Feedback will help us make Men's Fitness the best it can be."