c'mon hedge, i figured you'd have more sense than that. he's not the fattest guy out there, and his rom is pretty long. he's one of the most consistent benchers and can out-do people with 700-ish raw presses when they're all wearing APF-verified shirts.
the man is incredibly strong, and 220 cut? come on, have you ever benched in a shirt? it doesn't push the weight for you the whole time, just off the chest. your lockout strength has to be massive to move the kind of weight he does. not to mention the shoulders and back power.
i'd agree on the 600 raw, though. he doesn't train the bottom half, so why would it be that strong? there are guys who had a 500-ish raw bench, went shirted for a long time, then came back and 315 was a struggle because all of their power went into the top half.
let me also say that lifting equipped is harder than lifting raw. it just is. now, i don't mean lifting the same weights raw vs equipped, i mean maxing out. the pressure on your body and the kind of strain you go through getting maximal lifts geared up is just shattering. you max out raw on the bench and you'll be a little winded for a second. throw on a tight shirt and after a max-out you'll be seeing stars and likely have burst some blood vessels. it's an entirely different animal, and it gets even crazier when you talk a suited up squat complete with briefs and wraps.
