Blog

October 2021

10/14/2021 Post-Olympia

Well, the Olympia has come and gone and my predictions were close, but there were two major surprises. Ramy repeated as the winner, with Brandon, Hadi, Hunter, and Nick rounding out the top 5. The most surprising performance was certainly Labrada coming in 4th place. I predicted he'd end up in 8th. He looked great, but I definitely had Nick Walker (5th) ahead of Hunter. Nick is more muscular and was way leaner and harder. Hunter has better shape, but I don't think he was better than Nick. The most disappointing performance was James Hollingshead's showing. I had him coming in the top 6, but he was outside the top 10. On the livestream, he was the only person who you could see no ab definition at all. He wasn't fat, but his core just looked completely flat and washed out. It honestly looked odd. I look forward to the next month or two of post-Olympia shows and seeing if Nathan DeAsha can keep his run going in Europe.

10/08/2021 Open Mr. Olympia Predictions

Tonight is the prejudging open bodybuilding for the 2021 Mr. Olympia contest. After the Arnold Classic that wrapped up two weeks ago, I'm very excited for the show. There are several interesting storylines.

Big Ramy has really only nailed it a few times in his professional career, and last year was one of those times, as he picked up his first Mr. Olympia title. In his second year with Chad Nichols at the helm, I look forward to seeing if they can repeat (or even improve) on last year. I predict that they will and that Ramy will repeat as champion.

Can the young Nick Walker keep up his run this season with a top-5, or even top-3, performance? Nick has won both the NY Pro and the Arnold Classic in 2021, which are two biggest shows other than the Olympia in what is truly his rookie season. He did compete in a pro show in 2020 shortly after earning his pro card, but 2021 is his rookie year on the IFBB circuit.

Just as exciting as the battles for 1st-5th is the battle I foresee for 6th-10th. We haven't seen Hunter Labrada for several months, and it's been almost a year since James Hollingshead hit the stage. Can Akim Williams improve his conditioning from the Arnold Classic? Can Justin Rodriguez leap-frog Iain Valliere and some other competitors expected to place ahead of him?

My predictions going into the weekend are as follows. I see the show playing out in three distinct tiers, but I wouldn't be surprised to see someone in Tier 2 break into Tier 1, or someone in Tier 3 break into Tier 2. We can't expect everyone will be on, so there is likely to be some surprises, both over- and under-performances.

Tier 1

  1. Big Ramy

  2. Hadi Choopan

  3. Brandon Curry

  4. Nick Walker

  5. William Bonac

Tier 2

  1. James Hollingshead

  2. Iain Valliere

  3. Hunter Labrada

  4. Akim Williams

  5. Justin Rodriguez

Tier 3

  1. Mo Shaaban

  2. Regan Grimes

  3. Patrick Moore

  4. Roelly Winklaar

  5. Andrea Presti

  6. Hassan Mustafa

I hope that this lineup puts to bed any concerns about the quality of bodybuilding today. Of those qualified from this year, Phil Heath, Nathan DeAsha, and Vladyslav Sukhoruchko will not be competing.

Additionally, there are several Olympia-level competitors who didn't qualify or did not compete this year. Imagine this lineup with Phil (probably not going to happen), Nathan, Flex Lewis, Kai Greene (never going to happen), Shawn Rhoden, Cedric McMillan, Sergio Oliva Jr, and Steve Kuclo. I'm sure I'm missing others. There are a lot of awesome open bodybuilders today. Although he hasn't done anything spectacular in the pro ranks yet, I fully expect Quinton Eriya to develop into this caliber of bodybuilder in the next year. It's truly exciting, and I can't wait.