by Christian Duque
A lot of people say that not having Derek and Nick side-by-side of the press conference was a tremendous missed opportunity. And I would have to agree. There was so much bad blood between these guys that the tension alone would’ve been enough to create tremendous amounts of hype and buzz for the entire Olympia weekend. Now I understand that toxicity is usually not the way to go, but let’s explore it.
Bodybuilding should be a sport that celebrates good sportsmanship and camaraderie. But when’s the last time that anyone bought a ticket to see people get along? The fact is drama sells tickets. Drama also keeps people engaged. The press conference at one point was where converging forces came together and had to get along, but there was tremendous amounts of bad blood. For years Men’s Physique was the only division that had any kind of real drama. And for that, they got the brunt of a lot of criticism by their peers. What they also got, was a hell of a lot of interest from the fans.
Now I’m not saying that Bob and Nick had to go to blows or throw stuff at each other or storm off stage, but it would’ve been fun to watch. Just like it was fun to watch Kai and Phil go at it taking jobs at one another verbally, but also elbowing each other on stage. I know that that created a black eye for the sport, but at the end of the day black eyes create entertainment. And entertainment is very important when you’re dealing with a sport that’s basically a bunch of guys oiled up and in speedo’s. Posing itself is not entertainment. The mandatory poses and the comparisons are for the judges. What the judges do is score shows. And they play a very important part in determining who’s going to win, but that doesn’t do anything for the fans.
Take the peoples choice award or the peoples champion, I don’t even know what it’s called. That’s a great title to have, but you have to vote on a website. And I tried to vote, but I had to sign up and do all sorts of things that I really didn’t have the time for. I was sitting at the Resort World, front row, mezzanine, looking at all the action, and I simply just did not have the patience to go through with all of the prompts just to be able to cast a vote. So I just gave up. Now I’m not saying that most fans would’ve given up, but I did.
At the end of the day, I wanted to be entertained. I didn’t want to have to sign up for any kind of service or answer any kind of question besides the question that I really cared about which was voting for the person that would get this distinction. I think that fan interaction is very important. I think applause is very important, too.
To a certain extent, I understand what Andrew was trying to do when he was trying to rile up the audience. Unfortunately for him, he earned the sworn of Big Steve. And I happen to agree with the judges in that there’s a time and a place to entertain the crowd. And it’s not during the mandatories, it’s not during the confirmation rounds, it’s for the pose down. I also think that there is room for entertainment in the press conference. I understand that they wanted to have a special press conference for the four Olympia champions and then a separate press conference for everybody else, but I think that was a missed opportunity. I think it was a missed opportunity because everybody should’ve been at the same press conference.
The press conferences used to be great. Guys used to strip down and pose. Sometimes they would even leave the press conference area and go into the audience area. But those days are long gone. Nobody poses anymore, nobody shows off any muscle. It’s all very sterile and very boring. So again, I don’t understand why they couldn’t have Derek and Nick come out and at least talk to each other – or even be on opposite sides of the room, but be in the same room together. I think that 2014 still weighs heavily on the Olympia staff and they don’t want to go through that again. I mean, I really can’t blame them, can you? 2014 was supposed to be the year that the Olympia was on NBC and as a result it never made it to any channel.
And that goes back to this desire that a lot of people within the sport of bodybuilding have and that’s to make bodybuilding a mainstream sport. I have bad news for those folks, I don’t think it ever will be. It’s just too boring. It’s not boring to me and it’s not boring to you, the loyal readers of IronMag, but to the average a person, they just don’t get it. I think that if there was more drama and more tension we would see a lot more viewers. But even still, it would not be a household name and it wouldn’t be a mainstream sport. I think we have to have realistic expectations
Those realistic expectations, however, can see the sport get a lot bigger than what it is. That being said it’s not going to get bigger if it continues to be boring. The press conference is a huge opportunity to get a lot more eyes and a lot more ears and a lot more clicks than have been seen in a long time. I don’t think anybody tunes into the press conference or watches a bodybuilding show to find a good role model. Maybe in Arnold’s day that was the case, but that is not the case today. They want to see freaky muscle, they want to see veins popping, and they want to see anger and fury and testosterone. And what they saw at the 2025 press conference was nothing but crickets. Nobody had anything controversial to say, nobody got in anyone’s face; it was all very orderly and very boring. And as a result, I think it was a tremendously huge missed opportunity,
As always, I like to leave the final word to you. Would you have liked to have seen some fireworks at the press conference? Do you think that not having Derek and Nick together was a missed opportunity? 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 of this article on all your social media feeds. It is bound to generate lively conversation.