by Christian Duque
So one of the things that I do is that I’m always looking for new stories. I don’t just watch the shows and listen to the podcasters – I look everywhere. Sometimes I’m not even intentionally looking for ideas. I just go about my day. In any event today I saw an interesting post from Dan Dillon, the mayor of bodybuilding, on Facebook. And in his post he was talking about the possibility of the reigning champ doing the 2025 Arnold Classic.
Now that competition is going to pay a whopping $500,000 to the grand prize winner so everybody is going to look at this show with great interest. Now let me stress the concept of burning out. Because I’m going to mention this concept throughout my article today. This is a concept that essentially means that when a competitor competes too much their body stops responding. There isn’t anything really novel about it and it’s always been a concern with competitors that really like to chase after the prize money and the headlines and accolades. We have seen young competitors burn out, old competitors burn out, mass monsters and genetic freaks burn out. It really doesn’t matter because at the end of the day the body just stops responding.
Now some coaches might take that as a personal challenge and may load the competitor up on drugs or load them up on food or try different protocols to get around it, but ultimately the body is the one that decides if it’s going to work or not. We have also seen burnout effects result in deaths.
Now I’m pretty sure that Samson’s health is on the up and up. I’m sure that his blood panels are good, that his cholesterol is good, that he doesn’t have any pre-existing conditions. I’m sure about all these things. And if you believe me, I have a bridge to sell you in New Jersey. It’s not because there’s anything wrong with Samson, but how the hell would I know how his health is doing? All I can say from my point of view is that the burnout factor can result in any number of different consequences and one of them is health. But let’s assume that Samson’s health is perfect. Let’s look at it from a competition standpoint. If he does the Arnold is he pushing his luck? Wouldn’t it be more sensible to hunker down and work all year to have a successful title defense in 2025 at that year’s Olympia?
Well that would make sense wouldn’t it? To most competitors it would, but does it make sense to Samson? I don’t think so. Because everybody, yours truly included, was saying what a colossal mistake doing the show in France just a couple of weeks before the Olympia was. We were all saying it. At least I’m not going to be a hypocrite now and pretend like I didn’t. I thought the competition before the Olympia was absolutely ridiculous. I thought that even if he peaked at 80% he was still running a huge risk of losing the biggest show in bodybuilding. I mean this guy was a top three Olympian and was going into a contest against two guys he had never beaten before in Derek and Hadi. But he stuck to his guns and he did the show in France. He looked phenomenal and he grabbed some accolades. Not only that, but he was able to bounce back for the Olympia and beat out everybody to take the Sandow. So is he going to listen to the talking heads this time? More than likely not. Plus, it’s $500k on the line!
I think one thing’s for certain in bodybuilding. And that is nothing is for certain. It sounds kind of redundant, doesn’t it? Well just because Samson won the title in 2024 does not mean that he will win it in 2025. Perhaps he’s of the mindset that you must strike the iron while it’s hot. Perhaps he feels that because he won the Olympia, now is the time to also try to win the Arnold Classic.
After all, who’s going to beat him? Guys that he beat at the Olympia? That’s usually not how it plays out. In the history of bodybuilding it has seldom, if ever, happened where the reigning Mr Olympia goes into the Arnold Classic and loses. I can’t think of that ever happening before. And I certainly can’t think of it happening next year, either.
Now I’m not going to say the Arnold would be easy money, but all things being what they are, it’s a contest he should win. So between the $600,000 at the Olympia and the $500,000 in Columbus, he could essentially make over a million dollars just in contest prizes in the course of maybe three or four months. That is really hard to walk away from. Plus he’s got a major sponsor in Hosstile Supps and he’s probably going to get many more sponsors from here to Columbus and from Columbus to next year’s Olympia. Again, he may be looking at the here and now, and not so much the future.
And what got me most about Dan’s post on Facebook is that Sugar Shawn Ray, IFBB Hall of Famer and an integral part of the Olympia, confirmed that Samson would be doing the 2025 Arnold Classic. Now, I don’t know who Shawn’s sources are, but I know that Shawn is a very credible individual in the sport of bodybuilding and he’s not going to leave a public comment on Dan’s Facebook page unless he can back it up. So if Ray believes that Samson is going to be competing in Columbus, then that is most definitely newsworthy.
But back to my point about burning out. I still believe that Samson doing the Arnold would be a mistake. because he may win in Columbus but at what cost? And could you imagine if Columbus wasn’t the end of it? Could you imagine if he wanted to also do the New York Pro or maybe the Tampa Pro or the Chicago Pro and do the Legion Sports Festival, too?!?!
I mean at some point this guy will burn out because he is a guy. He is a human – just like everybody else. a
And the reality of the matter is that the body can only take so much abuse. And there is no such thing as a contest prep that doesn’t tax the body. We are talking about extremely powerful exogenous hormones, diuretics (potentially), and other products. Maybe SARM’s, SERM’s, and who knows what else?
At the end of the day even when you put all the chemicals aside, you can’t forget about the training, and the training under caloric manipulation. That’s also a major factor. Plus there is the potential of injuries, there’s the potential of metabolic damage, there are just so many things that could go wrong when you’re dealing with a competitor that literally wants to compete until the wheels fall off. There is a limit to anyone’s good luck and I fear that Samson may push the envelope as far as he can. And that’s fine if that’s his prerogative, but wouldn’t it be sad if he lost the Olympia next year simply because he didn’t have the willpower to say no and stick to the Super Bowl of Bodybuilding? Because in my opinion it takes a tremendous amount of willpower to pass up the easy money and shore up your resources and put on the strongest title defense of the biggest title in bodybuilding, imaginable.
Maybe I’m too old school in my way of thinking and maybe Samson is more pragmatic, but at the end of the day all of these other titles don’t matter. The only title that matters is the Olympia. I hope Dauda does right by his Olympia and does not burn out on other shows. Only time will tell, but like I said, he’s not going to listen to anyone because after all, he competed two weeks before the Olympia and then became Mr Olympia.
What do you think? Should Samson do the Arnold Classic in 2025? As always, thanks for reading my article, here, at Iron Magazine. I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments.