by Christian Duque
Controversial placings in bodybuilding are pretty much par for the course. Every so often there’s a decision that just leaves you scratching your head. For the most part, controversial decisions usually pit the bodybuilding world against the judging panel and it usually starts with the first call outs. You might see a competitor that looks exceptionally well on the road to the contest. Usually they will look very good on social media, they might look really good for the check-ins, and then when the first call outs come out they’re nowhere to be seen.
Or maybe they are in the first call outs but they’re in the wings, meaning they’re on the ends. Now it doesn’t always mean that whoever gets center stage is going to win, but I think it’s fair to say that dead center usually means you’re battling for the top placing at a contest. Sometimes the winner might get shuffled around but they always have to be at least in the middle for some point in time. Now what happened at the Masters Olympia makes little to no sense because Phil Clahar not only was in the middle for a period of time but he was winning in the prejudging. And when I say he was winning it wasn’t even close. I don’t want to say that he didn’t have any competition but the lead was so comfortable that he would have had to have come into the finals looking like absolute trash in order to lose that lead.
I’m not somebody that really talks about the nuts and bolts of the sport. I don’t talk about lat insertions or clavicles or Christmas trees in the quads or anything like that. I’m not saying that that type of writing is not important, it’s just not what I do. I don’t generally dissect the intricacies of the mandatory poses. I just look at a contest, I loo at all of the mandatory poses, and I look at what the judges did. And from where I was sitting it looked to me like Phil was going to win the contest after the prejudging.
Now I understand that bodybuilding is not a sport based on definites. In other words, if you’re dead center it doesn’t mean you’re definitely going to win, but 9 times out of 10 it means that you will. Also what one judging panel sees may not be what another judging panel sees, but generally 9 times out of 10 there is some consistency in the judging. So if somebody comes into a contest and they just knock everyone out, chances are they’re going to do that in every show that they compete in. Because at the end of the day a flawless physique is a flawless physique. Now we can talk about the apples and oranges argument and we can talk about the fact that some judges prefer symmetry and other judges prefer size, but generally the best physiques are the ones that really stand out from the crowd. Those are the physiques that are going to do the best wherever you compete. Because at the end of the day it is a subjective sport. There’s a lot of criteria that keep it from being a complete shit show. Otherwise you can have guys with no abs or no lines in their glutes win – that just doesn’t happen. You’re not going to have some fat blob go up there and take the title because there are some standards even in a subjective sport. And one thing that’s a definite is whoever wins the prejudging wins the show.
Some of the most controversial decisions in the sport are decisions where that tendency has been ignored. For example, who can forget the 2001 Mr. Olympia? Jay defeated Ronnie at the prejudging and everybody was expecting Cutler to take the win. When he did not, that sent shockwaves throughout the sport. 24 years later people still can’t wrap their head around how Ronnie was able to walk away with the win. Another controversial win was Lee Haney back in 1991. Dorian had him on the ropes and Dorian was beating him in the prejudging. Everybody and their mother expected The Shadow to win that year but he didn’t. And how did Haney hold on? He held on because he supposedly beat him in the finals because he was able to outpose him. These things don’t make any sense and because they don’t make any sense it’s why people talk about them for years to come. And speaking of Dorian, who can forget the 1997 Olympia? I don’t even think Dorian thought he won that year, but somehow he was able to get the win.
Now, with regards to the Master’s Olympia, Phil was beating everybody in the prejudging. And what’s crazy is that Phil didn’t look any different in the finals. He didn’t lose his peak, he wasn’t holding water, he didn’t come in smooth, he did everything he needed to do to seal the deal, but yet he came up second?? And the same way that Ronnie must have known he lost in 2001 and Dorian must have known he lost in 1997, I’m pretty sure that Dorian [Haywood] must have been absolutely stunned that he was given the win for a contest where Phil dominated the entire pack. So what happened? Why did Phil “lose?” And why is it that so many people lashed out at me on Friday August 15th for putting out a couple of reels giving my two cents on the contest decision?
It’s been my experience that at any time the sport wants a story to die out, it has a funny way of doing the opposite. There has been a tremendous amount of conversation about this contest privately but very few people want to publicly state their opinion. That, too, is very questionable because if it is just another bodybuilding show then what’s all the secrecy about? Why is it that people are scared to say anything about the 2025 Masters Olympia? I mean when you start to look at the different bodybuilding platforms it’s like they have pretty much all gone radio-silent on the placings and the aftermath of this very important show. And it is a very important show because Masters bodybuilding and Masters physique based sports have definitely increased tremendously in popularity. When you start to look at the numbers. The numbers don’t lie. Masters level competitors are competing on more and more stages and promoters want their entries because those entries equal more money in their pockets. This is why we have seen a steady increase in Master’s Pro shows and why we have seen the return of the Masters Olympia. Don’t get it twisted, we have not always had a Master’s O. In fact, it was dormant for quite a few years.
I, for one, think it’s a great addition back to the roster and I love what Jake and his team are doing to promote the event. I would prefer to see it as part of the Olympia Weekend but even as a standalone it’s definitely bringing in the numbers. People want to see the show and we see more and more depth in all of the divisions that compete in it. But the problem is how can you rob somebody like Phil who clearly brought their A-game, who fought hard, and who looked phenomenal on stage? Why was he relegated to second? And how can anyone justify Dorian Haywood beating him? On what level did he beat him? It just doesn’t make any sense.
And then to have this media blackout and for me to get as much blowback as I did for putting out two reels on a Friday?? First of all, nobody puts out a story on a Friday, and I wasn’t even one of the first to break the story. I wasn’t trying to get hits. I was basically one of the last people to weigh in and I got grilled for it. People were absolutely livid that I would even dare talk about it. I guess what bothered a lot of people was that I talked about it publicly. Perhaps if I had just been like everybody else and talked about it behind closed doors and off-the-record that wouldn’t have been a problem. In my opinion, Phil must have said something about someone very important, whether he meant any disrespect or not, and they wanted payback. And that’s just it, you can say something – even if nothing bad is intended by it – but if it rubs somebody powerful the wrong way, you just never know what that payback might look like.. And sometimes the payback doesn’t come for months or years down the road. They have all the time in the world.
This is not the first time that a bodybuilder got screwed out of a win, but what I have been saying on social media, I will continue to see in this article. It’s one thing to steal a show from someone, but when that someone is winning in the prejudging and actually wins the pre-judging, and then they go on to lose the show? That just raises a lot of red flags. Even the most “loyal” people are going to raise an eyebrow. How can they not?!?!
What do you think Phil did? Who do you think he rubbed the wrong way? I guess we will never know. Do you think Phil should have won the Masters Olympia? You know what my opinion is. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my article, here, at IronMag. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. Please copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It will definitely generate some lively conversation.
