by Christian Duque
I have to say I’ve written nearly 1,000 articles for IronMag and I don’t think I’ve ever used the term screw in an article title, but I really believe that Andrew Jacked may have screwed himself out of a better placing at the 2025 Mr Olympia. Why do I hold this opinion? I mean here we are talking about a guy with an absolutely beautiful physique to look at. Nothing like the much hyped Nick Walker who has the aesthetics of a refrigerator. We’re talking about an individual with beautiful lines, flowing symmetry, and who actually knows how to pose. So how could someone like this ever screw himself? After all, Andrew was consistently in the top four at the Olympia. He was also looked at very closely by the judges. And this was not any average Olympia. That almost sounds like an oxymoron though? An average Olympia?
That shouldn’t even be a thing, but it is because there have been some Olympias where it’s very clear-cut who the winner is, who the runner-up is, and so on and so forth. The 2025 Olympia was certainly not an Olympia like that. This was a contest where the judges had their work cut out for them. And not only that – they freely admitted it with the whole world as a witness. This is why they asked these four competitors on numerous occasions if they were okay with going on one more round. And of course the guys were going to say they were because this was going to decide who the best bodybuilder on this rock called Earth would be for the next 365 days. These guys were so hungry and they wanted it that nothing was going to hold them back. But one guy, one guy may not have appeared to be as hungry as the other three.
Andrew Jacked is a phenomenal bodybuilder. I don’t want to take anything away from him. He has done the business of bodybuilding. He has cut his teeth with placings that maybe he would have preferred avoiding. But that’s part of being a great bodybuilder. You can’t win all the time. You can’t get what you want all the time. This is not a sport about instant gratification. In this sport, it’s not uncommon for amateurs to go years without getting a pro card. And while pro cards may seem to grow on trees for men’s physique and possibly classic physique, they certainly do not fall out of the sky for open bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is the flagship division. It’s the division that started at all. And it just so happens to be the hardest division to earn professional status today. I suspect it always will be. So I totally respect Jacked and every bodybuilder that earns professional status. But beyond that he has competed on stages all around the world. He’s won some, he’s placed well at others, and like I said he’s probably experienced that rough placing every so often, too. Andrew is not a quitter, he is not a whiner, he is a consummate professional.
And this is why I can understand why Andrew was probably very surprised to find himself in the top four. I had him in my top five or top six but a lot of others didn’t. He was more or less written off because he just didn’t have the hype factor. I mean you had guys like Nick Walker claiming to win the competition. Then you had other guys like Brandon, like Derek, guys like that who had already won the title before. And then of course you had the reigning, defending champion. Even though he took a loss in Columbus Ohio placing 2nd to Derek a lot of people thought that that was going to light a fire under him. If you looked at Samson’s social media coming into the contest he looked to be the clear cut winner. A lot of people said it was his show to lose.
So again, when Andrew was brought into that top four mix it became very clear, very early on that he was being looked at as someone who could potentially win the title. Because at the end of the day Derek and Hadi are vertically challenged competitors and since Samson was a defending champion and they put Andrew in the mix, some might argue that it was between Samson and Andrew. Others may have argued it differently.
So how did Andrew screw him out of a higher placing? I mean he walked away with third place. He placed ahead of the defending champion so maybe that was enough for him for this year? I don’t necessarily subscribe to that way of thinking because I think that Andrew could have placed as high as second or maybe he could have won the whole show. So why didn’t he? Well the reason he didn’t is because I believe he pissed off the judges. The fact that Big Steve had to tell him in front of the whole world that he was not at a guest posing appearance speaks volumes. I mean do you realize how embarrassing it is for the head judge to openly chastise a top tier Olympia competitor on the Olympia stage? There is nothing funny about that. And anybody that knows Big Steve knows that while he does have a sense of humor there’s a time and a place. There’s a time and a place for him to laugh just like there’s a time and a place for a top Olympian to work the audience. It’s okay if you want to work the audience during the posedown. That’s what the posedown is for. But Andrew was working the audience during the mandatory poses and during the numerous confirmation rounds. There’s only supposed to be one confirmation round but like I said the judges really had their work cut out for them. They were changing these guys, they were asking them to pose again, and they were all pretty much following the protocol except for Andrew. only Andrew had to be scolded. Only Andrew had to be reminded of where he was at. And honestly, I think it hurt him a great deal.
Just think about it this way. If Andrew focused on posing and showcasing his strengths instead of acting like a clown, don’t you think he could have placed higher? I just think it was a huge missed opportunity on his part. And I hope to God he doesn’t do this again in 2026 and beyond. Because like I said early on he has all the tools necessary to be Mr Olympia. And honestly it is pretty nerve-racking to me that maybe in the eyes of sun judges Andrew could have won the contest this very year but didn’t because he acted like a fool. Like I said, I totally understand him being elated and happy and excited and everything that comes with being in the top four, but nothing justifies the way that he acted on stage and the fact that he had to be put in place by Big Steve, is very unfortunate.
There is no big mystery here and I’m not going to say that he lost because of anything but that maybe you think that I’m focusing on minutia as Kai Greene would say or maybe I’m focusing on a mere detail that doesn’t really amount to much in the end. But like I said, we’re not talking about some random judge, we’re talking about the Big Steve. We’re talking about the guy who looks over physiques prior to the Olympia, prior to the Arnold Classic, at the East Coast Mecca of Bodybuilding. For Big Steve to feel it necessary to chastise Andrew Jacked on the Olympia stage, that right there in my opinion substantially did him a disservice. And he has only himself to blame. In the future, I hope that Andrew focuses on the task at hand. There is a time and a place to be happy and jovial and work the crowd. But when you’re posing for the judges you’re not posing for the photographers, you’re not posing for your sponsors, you’re not posing for the fans. Your number one focus is the judges and the judges only. You would think that Andrew would have known that by then, but apparently he did not.
Do you think that Andrew could have placed as high as second or could have won had he not acted like a complete clown at the 2025 Olympia? I say yes, what do you say? 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 bound to generate lively conversation.