by Christian Duque
What a monumental prediction from the greatest bodybuilder of all time Ronnie Coleman when it comes to Keone Pearson. Ronnie has not made a lot of these types of predictions, in fact, I can only think of one other time in which The Big Nasty made a similar type endorsement. And it’s a ringing endorsement let me tell you. As I said, when you’re dealing with the eight time Mr Olympia he seldom, if ever, likes to put himself out on the line like this. And that’s exactly what he did for 212 Mr Olympia Keone Pearson. He basically said that when Keone transitions into the open category of men’s bodybuilding that it would only be a question of time until he was in fact the greatest bodybuilder on Earth. That is not something that you will hear from the big Texan. The reason you don’t hear that is because what it does is it puts him behind Peaeson as a competitor and separates him from the pack.
The only other time that Coleman did something like this was when he said that his successor would be Victor Martinez. Now when he made that statement it sent shockwaves throughout the industry. At the time print media was still king and everybody hung on Coleman’s every word. He made the statement in 2005 before that year’s Olympia. And he picked Victor Martinez not Jay Cutler. This of course deeply offended Cutler, who had been taking second to Coleman year after year. It was almost like a slap in the face. Ronnie did not mean any offense; he was just being honest and giving his two cents to one of the many magazines that were interviewing him. The problem is it ruffled Jay’s feathers and it also created some animosity from other competitors who thought that they had been overlooked for The Dominican Dominator. As it would turn out Martinez was considered to be the winner of the 2007 Mr Olympia by many fans, even if not by the judges.
And that is also noteworthy because Coleman was not actually wrong. He predicted Martinez would be Mr O. Of course he did not anticipate losing the Sandow to Jay Cutler in 2006, but if all had gone according to plan he probably would have been the next Mr Olympia. I have always been of the belief that had Ronnie won in 2006 he would have retired. That would have given him nine consecutive Sandows and no real reason to continue on. I think that by 2006 Ronnie was tired and by 2005 you could already see it. He really was to the point where he wanted to take a break and his body was in agonizing pain. When I saw the documentary King it became apparent that for most of his reign he was actually trying to mask tremendous amounts of pain throughout his back and other parts of his body. The fact that none of us knew it is quite frankly insane because he was lifting like a powerlifter while in states of extreme caloric manipulation. But that was Ronnie and that was what he was all about.
When Coleman lost the Olympia in ’06 it was completely unexpected and then of course in 2007 Martinez nearly beat Cutler. So could Ronnie be right about Keone Pearson? Could Keone do what Victor was not allowed to do? And I say not allowed to do it because I also believe that Victor had Jay in the bag in 2007. I totally believe Jay won in 2006, 2009, and 2010. I do not believe he deserved to win in 2007. That being said, could Keone win it in terms of the fans and in terms of the judges? Well, let’s talk about it.
Keone would not be the first champion from the lighter division to go into the open and win. Look at Derek Lunsford. He already did that in 2023. It could be argued that Hadi has also been able to successfully cross over and win the open title. Although Hadi never won the lighter division’s Olympia. I don’t think it’s really a question of weight or height. We have also seen Shaun Clarida cross over and win open pro shows against guys an entire foot taller than him and as much as 100 lbs heavier. At the end of the day it’s going to come down to muscularity, symmetry, and flow. I also think that a large component of being able to seal the win in the open will be the posing.
Keone has been a phenomenal poser since the days he was under the tutelage of Flex Wheeler. He has always understood the value of artistically showcasing the physique for the fans, for the media, and as well for the judges. The judges are not so concerned with the artistic presentation of the physique as they are with the execution of the mandatory poses. And unlike a lot of top-tier competitors, even at the professional level, many have not been able to nail those mandatory poses as the rules require. Many will put forward variations that allow them to hide their shortcomings. For example, some competitors do not have a stronger side when it comes to lagging body parts. They may have an issue with both sides. In which case they will improvise and tweak mandatory poses.
Sometimes the judges will allow it and other times they are oblivious to it. Bodybuilding resembles wrestling in this regard. Even though the refs in wrestling are literally right in front of both wrestlers, there are many moves that can be done that break the rules but go unseen by them. This is because wrestlers know sneaky tricks that they can employ in order to get an edge on the competition. And wrestlers will never rat each other out. They will get even, but they won’t snitch. When it comes to bodybuilding all of the competitors are usually facing the same direction so they are unable to see the guys behind them and they are not really focused on the guys in front of them, either. The judges have full reign when it comes to moving them around and calling out poses.
When it comes to Pearson, however, I don’t think that he either needs to tweak any poses nor do I think he would ever do that. Part of the reason that he was able to work with the Sultan Of Symmetry was because of the fact that he has an aesthetically pleasing physique and a complete physique at that. There are very few guys that can compete in three divisions successfully. Keone has competed in classic physique, 212 bodybuilding, and now open bodybuilding. He has done open bodybuilding before but never at the Olympia level. Quite frankly, I think that he would do very well if he gives himself enough time to grow into the bigger division. With Derek, he had the time to do it and I believe he also knew that a special invite was all but a given. Back in 2023 it was abundantly clear that he was not going to defend his title in the 212. So much so that he put on a tremendous amount of size and guest posed at the Pittsburgh Pro. It was at that competition that I believe he became aware of the special invite even though it was not formally extended until much later. That’s not going to be the case with Keone. He is going to have to work hard to defend his title in the lighter division while working to grow into the bigger division. So the question remains, is he going to forgo a title defense in 2025 or is the plan to cross over into the open in 2026? The rumors are out there. The question now becomes what is the champ going to do?
At the end of the day the ringing endorsement from Ronnie is going to have a tremendous amount of impact on the media. With Ronnie’s endorsement I can already imagine the number of bookings that Keone is going to have. I would imagine Generation Iron will want to talk to him, Ron Harris, RX Muscle and the list will go on and on. Again it’s because Ronnie is not in the habit of making predictions like this. Like I said, the last time he did it was way back in 2005, exactly 20 years ago.
So what do you think? Do you think that Keone can pull it off? Whether in 2025 or 2026? Do you think Ronnie is on to something? As always, thanks for reading my article, here, at Iron Magazine. Be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It will generate lively conversation. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments.
