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by Christian Duque
What a hard fought battle. Who could have ever expected this? Ironically just a few days ago Nick’s Strength And Power, the most popular YouTuber on the planet, ran a poll that received over 50,000 votes. Over 50,000 people voted and of all the top six guys, Derek got the least amount of votes. It was the talk of the town. Here you had an individual, a former Olympia champion, who won the Arnold Classic this year. and didn’t just win the Arnold plastic this year, but defeated the reigning Mr Olympia in the process, but he wasn’t getting any love. Why?
Surely you would have thought that would have catapulted him into the position of number one contender. Because after all he’s a previous Mr Olympia and he just beat the reigning Mr Olympia and in commanding form. It wasn’t a close decision, there wasn’t a lot of blowback on the fan side or the media side, it was a pretty sheer-cut victory. And I just can’t play that down enough because that’s a major, major development. For starters why is it reigning Mr Olympia competing at the second biggest bodybuilding show in the world. That’s a Ronnie Coleman move right there. That is something that only somebody that has a substantial amount of dominance would ever try to do. And with regard to Ronnie in 2001, that little stunt nearly cost him the Olympia. So again for Samson to go to Columbus that was a pretty bold move, and guess what? Derek stopped him dead in his tracks. Derek beat Samson in Columbus, he beat Nick Walker in Pittsburgh, but yet only 5% of Nick Miller’s 50,000 strong poll had Derek winning? How does that even happen? Well it happened. It happened and it happened in a decisive way.
It was a hard-fought battle though. I was there and I can’t thank my good friend Dan Solomon enough for all of his hospitality and generosity. I also want to send a huge shoutout to Jake Wood. I’ve been wanting to meet Jake for many years and finally got my opportunity just by happenstance at the Olympia Expo. We talked for a couple of minutes and took a photo. It was a really nice experience and very much like Dan had said, the purpose of this trip was to go back and see old friends. That’s exactly what I did and I had a phenomenal time so I just want to thank Dan and Jake so much for all their hospitality. But rest assured this was a hard fought battle.
Big kudos to Steve Weinberger for making sure that these competitors were looked at thoroughly. I don’t know how many rounds they went through, but it always seemed like they were trying to add another. The guys were switched in various places during various times of the prejudging, the confirmation round, and the extra confirmation round. I mean these guys got a thorough looking over.
I think that Andrew pissed the judges off ever so slightly because he was treating the confirmation round as somewhat of a guest posing experience and I don’t think Big Steve really liked that too much. Maybe in his head Andrew figured he was going to be fourth place no matter what because they kept calling Andrew, Samson, Hadi, and Derek. Maybe in Andrew’s mind he was having a good time because he had nothing to lose. Maybe in his estimation it was a three-man fight and he was the fourth person along for the ride. But it goes to show you that Andrew actually placed above Samson and maybe if he had not been playing around on stage as much as he was, maybe he could have been as high as second? Again I don’t know and I don’t want to chastise a guy for being happy for living out his dreams, but there’s a time and a place. With regards to that time and place however, Samson, Hadi, and Derek were most definitely taking this contest very seriously. This is not to say that Andrew was not, but these three in particular were taking it to a whole other level.
I would love to know what was in each one of these champions’ mind. For Samson, he was the reigning champion, the defending champion, the man of the hour, right? Well that’s debatable because of the fact that he lost in Columbus. And even though he looked very good I don’t think he looked better than Derek or Hadi at any point during the show. I don’t think he looked better than Derek at the prejudging or the finals. That puts the champ in a precarious position because of the fact that he towers over his chief competition yet he can’t hold a candle to them. I think that both Hadi and Derek put Samson at a substantial disadvantage where he was not competing against them, but he was trying to hold off Andrew and failed. The reality of the matter is that Jacked looked better than Samson as well.
That being said, I want to continue speaking about this hard fought battle because of the fact that these guys were so primed and so ready that it warrants it. I didn’t see anybody gassing out. I didn’t see anybody cramping up. I didn’t see anybody waiting until late in the pose to hit the shot. Nobody was employing any of the tricks of the trade of an individual that has not posed enough in the mirror. Their posing was perfect, their breathing was controlled, there was no distention in the midsection in any pose or in between poses. These guys, especially these three guys, were ready to go for the long haul. I feel Andrew was as well but he was just way too bubbly and cheerful for a portion of a contest as big as this one was.
Again I’m really trying not to dog on the guy but if he had come in with a more serious demeanor and had he really listened to the judges and not made their life difficult, I think he could have been your runner-up. I really truly believe that out of all the guys, it’s Andrew’s physique that is the most pleasing physique to look at. But yet he was third. This is very, very good food for thought, if you ask me.
At the end of the day, Derek won. I made a video on Instagram where I was speaking out loud to myself and to my viewers saying that Derek deserved this victory and only Derek should get it. Again I don’t think anybody walked away from that feeling like anyone got robbed. Now of course Hadi wasn’t elated. You could tell by his facial expressions and his body language but he did not storm off stage and hopefully he will not start firing shots at either Derek or the contest. He has absolutely nothing to feel bad about. He looked phenomenal, he won the People’s Choice Award for the second time, and to a lot of people at the Resorts World, Hadi was the guy that should have emerged victorious. I was not one of those guys, but anybody with a couple of ears could hear them all throughout the venue. They were there in full force and they wanted to see The Persian Wolf win. There’s no doubt in my mind that he cannot get another Sandow but 2025 was not to be his year. Derek came in firing all cylinders and Derek left with the Sandow in hand.
Do you agree with the placings? And how cool is it that now Derek is the second man in bodybuilding history to reclaim his title. As always I hope you enjoyed reading my article, here, at IronMag. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It is surely going to generate lively conversation!
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