by Christian Duque
Bodybuilding fans took a tremendous sigh of relief as Martin Fitzwater defeated Chris Bumstead at the EVLS Prague Pro. It was a very close contest and many thought that Bumstead would end up beating Fitzwater even though Bumstead had never done an open bodybuilding show before. As the prejudging concluded everyone, including yours truly, thought for sure that Fitzwater was going to be robbed. I was already drawing parallels between New York Pro where Martin looked much better than Nick Walker but was robbed of the win.
This is nothing to take away from Chris, who did a phenomenal job transitioning from classic physique to open bodybuilding, but the transition lasted maybe a month at most. It would have been absolutely preposterous if somebody doing an open bodybuilding debut would have defeated the number four man in the world. At least as far as I was concerned that would have been the case. But I’m not going to sit here and lie to you. I was pretty nervous. I had even done an Instagram Reel on the subject and had done various stories. Maybe I was trying to raise awareness or maybe I was just very concerned.
In the end, I’m happy to have been wrong. And that’s just it people think that those of us in the media must always be right and feel salty when we’re wrong. I have to tell you I couldn’t be happier to be wrong. I’m happy to have egg on my face. I’m happy if people want to say I don’t know what I’m talking about. Because at the end of the day the man that should have won, won. Nobody’s really calling me out because I think that I was pretty reasonable in my concerns. Let me talk about the contest and the future for both of these top tier athletes.
The Prague show was one of three end of the year contests where top tier athletes were competing for a spot at next year’s Mr Olympia. in the case of Martin Fitzwater he was doing it because of the fact he wanted to get on stage after a very successful Olympia outing and show the world that he was firing on all cylinders. There’s nothing wrong with that because this contest would have been very similar to the old school European Grand Prix shows after the Olympia. Basically an opportunity for fans across the pond to see the best bodybuilders in the world. What was interesting is that no one from the top three was doing this particular show. Therefore, Martin was the next in line by process of elimination. He was the highest ranked athlete doing the show and as a result the favorite.
But when it was announced that Chris was doing the contest, suddenly C-Bum became the favorite and Martin became somewhat of a dark horse. Towards the end of the prejudging, most bodybuilding pundits thought Chris had it in the bag which was concerning given the fact that Martin brought a phenomenal physique. The only knock on Martin was that his tan was running a little bit but that is hardly a reason not to give a man a win. At least not as far as I’m concerned. To me, if anything, that’s a cop out. That’s the way to validate a guy getting robbed. After all you don’t score somebody on their tan – you score them on muscularity, symmetry, posing – that sort of thing.
With regards to physiques, I think that the top two guys both looked pretty phenomenal. Chris, being the towering classic physique greatest of all time, brought tremendous symmetry and balance to the stage. He had excellent muscle separation and presented a phenomenal physique to the judges. But again this is a classic physique not a bodybuilding one. There is simply no way he could have put on the necessary size in a matter of 4 weeks to get on a pro bodybuilding stage and defeat the number four in the world. I don’t care how good he looks, he did not look like an open bodybuilder.
At the end of the day there are divisions for a reason and I don’t think that elite level athletes can jump from one to the other. Maybe from the 212 to open but they’re both bodybuilding divisions. But to jump from men’s physique to classic or from classic to open bodybuilding that just seems like something that would take at least a good 6 months to a year. If not, then what is the point of having divisions? Why don’t athletes just cross over at the Arnold and Olympia all the time? I mean that would be a recipe for disaster.
That being said C-Bum did look very competitive and was most definitely worthy of being in the top four in Prague. He was battling all the way to the end for the top spot and he deserved to be up there. He was also entertaining the fans as we all knew that he would. At no point in time would I say that he was fading or what I say that he was not holding his own. This is not that type of article. I would never in a million years make such a statement. I just had a real problem with the fact that he could potentially beat the number four in the world given that the number four in the world looked absolutely phenomenal. And it also bothered me because if Chris had beat Martin it would have marked the second time in one year that the Detroit Pro Champion was robbed for what would have been blatant politics. The difference between New York and Prague in my opinion is the fact that he did so well at the Olympia and that he linked up with Hosstile Supps and has the backing of a powerful company that has gone to bat for him. I don’t care what anyone says but that makes a difference. When you are all by yourself and you’re competing against the giants it can be pretty cold. It can be a pretty long, cold winter, actually.
There’s no question in my mind that politics played a role in this contest, but perhaps the political factor wasn’t strong enough to get Bumstead the win. I do believe that we will see C-Bum compete at Mr Olympia in 2025. He may not do another bodybuilding show or he might. We really don’t know because honestly he retired once at the Olympia and now he’s retired for a second time in Prague. Maybe three times will be the charm. But the fact that he did this show suggests to me that there is at least some interest in him doing the open Olympia.
The one last thing I will say is that I could definitely see him getting a special invite. I know no one is talking about that now but I like to leave no stone unturned. It would be pretty ridiculous to give someone a special invite because they competed in a show in November 2024 for a show that’s 11 months away but again this is all a business at the end of the day. And the Olympia is very much a business as well. They want to sell tickets and they want to sell pay-per-view streams.
In my estimation from what I could see Martin deserved to win. And he most definitely did that. He took the stage like the champion and he posed hard. And as I’ve always said, bodybuilding is a short man’s sport. One look at Fitzwater and you could see a level of muscularity and separation that is consistent with that of a bodybuilder. It’s no knock on Bumstead. This goes back to the ages old wisdom of Masters Mr. World, The Voice Of Bodybuilding, Bob Cicherillo when he says it comes down to apples and oranges. The only wrinkle in that assessment is that he normally uses it to refer to two different looks in one division. In this case, it’s two very different looks, one from each division.
Bumstead has a great deal to be proud of. He beat a number of top bodybuilders and lost against the 4th best bodybuilder in the world. And not only that, but if we put politics aside, I’d argue that Fitzwater deserved to have edged out Derek Lunsford at this past year’s Olympia. And that only makes Bumstead’s accomplishments this weekend all the more impressive. Imagine doing your first-ever contest at the pro level and edging out a guy who’s in contention for winning the Superbowl of Bodybuilding?
No matter what I may say or write in this article, the seeds have been sowed. Even though I believe the right man won, there’s going to be a growing voice of dissent that says otherwise. Let’s not forget that whereas reigning Mr. Olympia Samson Dauda has 1.3 million IG followers, ousted Mr. O Derek Lunsford has 1.3 million, and Hadi Choopan has a little over 8 million (which is a little suspect), Bumstead has well over 25 million. These followers aren’t bought and paid for, they’re not bots.
I always tell the story of my experience at the Natural Vitamins Epic Block Party in Ozone New York, where I saw lines of over six blocks of fans waiting to meet Bumstead. You can’t ignore that. And that was two or three years ago. That fanbase has only grown. And the amount of money that the Olympia promoter could make by having Bumstead on his stage in 2025 is phenomenal. Thankfully, it won’t come as a result of Fitzwater being robbed at the EVLS Prague Pro, but it may very well happen some other way.
At this point, I don’t really believe anything that Bumstead says. He’s punk’d the fans with one retirement stunt with the GymShark announcement. Then he retired at the 2024 Mr. Olympia. Now he retired in Prague. To me, Bumstead is starting to look a bit silly. I don’t want to call him a clown, but at this point, I’ve heard enough of his retirement speeches. All that aside the people haven’t come close to hearing enough. I’m sure there’s a huge fanbase, in fact, who would have preferred Bumstead’s speech to have essentially taken up all the airtime, even denying Fitzwater his celebratory speech.
Look, the bottom line is that Bumstead has tremendous star power and his fans want to see him compete more. Therefore, even if Bumstead actually retires in Prague (this time for good), it’s clear that if he would have won in Prague, he would have done the Olympia.
I think that we may see Bumstead get a special invite. And I think we may see Hany coach Bumstead in that situation. The prospect of having C-Bum do the 2025 Mr. Olympia may be too much to resist. Therefore, I think we may still see the G.O.A.T. of Classic at the Open Olympia. The Prague Pro may have served as the catalyst for the special invite process. But who knows? Who really knows? I’m just happy that a bodybuilder won the bodybuilding contest this weekend.
Do you agree that Martin Fitzwater should have defeated Chris Bumstead? Do you think Chris will compete again? Do you think he’ll get a special invite? What say you? As always, thanks for reading my article, here, at Iron Magazine. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments.