Balik to the rescue.
Shelestov (right) and his “inter-preter.”
L.T. and Eddie Abbew.
Moe El Moussawi.
Silvio Samuel.
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ MAY 2007 263 As usual, I was right on with most of my guesses; Hinds ac-cused me of taking a peek at the scale, then looking away before I announced my predictions. I pled the fifth.
The funniest moment came when a buddy of Russia’s Ser-gey Shelestov joined Serg onstage. Somebody said he was the interpreter. Then he jumped on the scale and hit a front lat shot. With his sweater on. No luck in getting him to rip it off and really show the gang what he was made of.
Then there was the Japa-nese Elvis look-alike, who was 20 pounds off in his prognostication.
Ruthless Ruth Silverman, who usu-ally concentrates on the women’s side of the industry, was forced to give an estimate on one of the guys and was 15 pounds off. But she claimed to be 100 percent on the money when she declared that Silvio Samuel should get the Best Glutes award (at least I think that’s what she said). I think we’ll make Ruth’s award an annual one.
Shoot—there’s another title I have no chance of winning!
BIRTHDAY DINNER—After the Expo closed down on Friday evening, a bunch of people met in the bar at the Sheraton Pasadena Hotel, chatted for a while (okay, some drank—and drank—for a while), then headed out for JJ’s Steak House, Russ DeLuca’s favorite restaurant in Pasadena. Most of us walked, since I assured them the place was but three blocks away; 10 blocks later we settled in.
Russ played host to my birthday bash, and about 15 others (including IRON MAN Associate Publisher War-ren Wanderer) were so kind as to join in to celebrat-ing my 39th birthday dinner. Hey, no wisecracks—Jack Benny turned 39 many times over. My MySpace.com page says I’m 99, so I’m sure there’s a “9” in there somewhere.
Russ and wife Bridget gifted me with something to “whip” me into shape (a body tickler, to be specific), along with a video on sex education (well, sort of) and two fast-acting tabs of a product called Max Size.
Something about enlargement of certain parts of the body. My back, perhaps? That Russ and Bridget are one fun—and crazy—couple!
STONERS Which one of these guys can actually read
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264 MAY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com Ron Avidan and Isaac Hinds gave me a book by Jay Leno, If Roast Beef Could Fly, com-plete with CD. The “Tonight Show” host draws on a true story from his childhood “to make a genera-tion of young readers laugh out loud.” Obviously, Yogi and Isaac felt I needed help with my humor before I had to go to the podium the following evening.
Although they were not at the dinner, Timea Majorova and Shawn Ray also presented me with gifts. The lovely Majorova and her husband, Josef Drsman gave me a nice bottle of wine, and Shawn presented me with—what else?—a copy of his latest DVD, “Fitness After 40.” “And make sure you hype it in the News & Views,” he added not so softly. The man truly has a huge heart.
To everyone who came to help make my latest (and last, as far as I’m concerned!) birthday a re-ally enjoyable one, thank you. Too many to name, but, as they say, you know who you are.
THE CONTEST—What with “The Experts’” wrap-up of the IM Pro that’s posted at GraphicMuscle.com (you have seen it, haven’t you?) and the slew of contest re-ports and opinions that have appeared on the Net since February 17, there won’t be much to say by the time you read this. Here’s just a sum-mary of my feelings on the IRON MAN bodybuilding bat-tle. First, however, come the kudos to Carol Bratcher, wife of IM Art Director Terry, for her beautiful rendition of the national anthem and to Michael Neveux and his team for proving, once again, why Michael should be in charge of the lighting at every major pro contest. Notice
how the bodies pop out at you; that doesn’t happen by accident.
Toney Freeman was the logical precontest favorite to win the $15,000 first prize, and his unanimous victory pretty much went unchallenged by the fans. Even so, Mark Dugdale and Silvio Samuel had their supporters as well, who pointed out that the 6’2”
275-pound Freeman was smaller than he’d been at his last contest appear-ance, at the ’06 Olympia. Does that statement sound funny, or what?
I picked Toney to win it before the event—and knew that he’d make my prediction a reality just moments into the prejudging. The man has beauti-ful shape—thus, the “X-man” moni-ker—and has plenty of quality muscle to
Silvio Samuel.
Marcus Haley.
David Henry.
Hidetata Yamagishi.
Omar Deckard.
Cutler at seminar (above) and with John Balik and Ron Avidan. Above right: Mc-Gough exits the venue.
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www.ironmanmagazine.com \ MAY 2007 265 go with it (ain’t too small to me). The 40-year-old from Atlanta has a small waist, great arms and wheels, nasty hamstrings, a good back—there
really shouldn’t be much dispute about Freeman’s dominat-ing victory. Just ask the fans, who gave Freeman another
$1,500 by voting him the winner of Bodybuilding.com’s
“You Be the Judge” online contest which took place during the company’s live Webcast.
Dugdale, the 5’6”, 205-pound father of three from Washington, was right on the money and was the judges’
solid pick for the runner-up slot in all three rounds. Mark’s physique was very polished, set off by those amazing thighs, hams and calves. He also has sharp abs and a good chest. Yes, his arms could use more size and his back more detail, but as you’ll soon see, everyone has flaws.
Most folks in the house thought the battle for second was going to be between Dugdale and the vastly improved Samuel, but Eddie Abbew’s advantage in the size de-partment eventually earned him third place, which pushed the popular Silvio into fourth. Samuel was about 10 pounds lighter than he’d been at the Europa Super Show last August, and he was much better for it here. Silvio had a great chest, arms and abs, and he edged out Joel Stubbs for freakiest-competitor-in-the-show honors, but he needs to learn how to control his midsection at all times onstage to keep from looking bloated.
Samuel also needs to have much more separation in those huge wheels to become a title contender. Still, it was a tremendous showing for the three-time Spanish champi-on, with any disappointment with his finish being eased a bit by the $1,000 he picked up for winning the Vince Gironda Award for Best Presentation—not to mention his invitation to compete in the ’07 Mr. Olympia lineup
With the IRON MAN now a top-five qualifier, the fourth and fifth slots have become a lot more significant. I thought the competition for the final qualifying spot was going to be a tremendous battle among three guys—Marcus Haley, Hidetada Yamagishi and Ahmad Haidar. Haley, the ’05 North American champ, looked good at around 5’8”, 235 pounds, but is a bit flat in the chest and, like Silvio, needs to work on controlling his midsection. Yamagishi was bigger—and thicker—than ever before, earning my “Most Improved Bodybuilder”
award for 2007 this early in the game. But the Japanese physique artist needs to pay attention to the following comment: Don’t get any bigger, because you’re also starting to look thicker around the middle, and that ain’t good.
David Henry, second last year, was off form this time around—and he still needs to polish the posing segment of his stage presentation. Still, you don’t need to worry about this cat; that will be about as “off” as you’ll ever see him. He was peeled in every show he competed in last year, and
I assume that will be the case from here on out in ’07.
Speaking of peeled, Haidar came in eight pounds lighter than a year ago and looked that much better for it. The owner of the best abs in the sport, Ahmad lacks a bit in taper from the front and is shallow in the lower back, but his outstanding condition should have warranted him a strong look for a top-five position. Ditto for Yamagishi.
Unfortunately, those three guys were never compared to Haley—
or Samuel—at the judging, and that had folks scratching their heads as they walked out of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium at the conclusion of the prejudging.
If Joel Stubbs had bigger legs, he’d have surpassed Samuel as the owner of the freakiest overall physique in the show. The airline pilot from the Bahamas has one of the best upper bodies I’ve even seen in the sport and, according to no less an expert than Flex Wheeler, the best back in the history of the game.
Now, I won’t go that far, but the 6’3”, 290-pound Stubbs is a Joel
Stubbs.
Joel Stubbs.
Troy Alves and David Henry.
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266 MAY 2007 \ www.ironmanmagazine.com
sight to behold, and, even though he had the inferior wheels, I could have seen him finishing a few slots higher in the lineup.
Omar Deckard, last year’s USA Overall champ, made his pro debut in Pasadena. Omar has one of the prettiest physiques in the sport, but he needed to be much more conditioned to have a shot at battling for a top-five finish.
Sergey Shelestov, the big Russian who used to be an army captain, should have been considered for a top-10 slot, and Italy’s Danielle Seccarecci showed a lot of promise too.
Moe El Moussawi was bigger, and better than last year, and seemed pleased with his improvement in making the top 15.
As mentioned, Samuel won the award for best presentation, but I would have given strong consideration to Haley. The late Mickey Hargitay was honored with the Peary and Mabel Rader Lifetime Achievement Award, and his wife, Ellen Har-gitay, was there to accept the award from John Balik in an extremely touching moment.
As always, the award was accompanied by a beautiful slide show with voice-over. Ellen gave a wonderful speech and really connected with the audience, which included her children.
Another special treat took place when Joe Weider arrived.
He walked into my dressing room a few minutes before start-ing time, and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Joe is lookstart-ing healthier by the day and later received a huge ovation from the fans when he was introduced in the audience. Weider, by the way, stayed for the entire show. You da man, Joe!
Freeman was trying his best to give a gracious victory speech at the end of the night, but some disturbed dude in the back of the auditorium kept screaming, “Silvio!… Silvio!… Silvio!” at a decibel level of 10, blocking out Toney’s words. I asked if he’d taken his meds for the evening, since he was surely high, and requested a straightjacket for him.
As the culprit was being escorted out of the building, I was stunned to find out that it was none other than Peter Mc-Gough. I chased Peter down and then forced him to explain why someone of his status would behave in such a way.
“No, you misunderstood, Lonnie,” McGough explained. “I was shouting, ‘Hi-ho, Silver!’ I was practicing my role in ‘The Return of the Lone Ranger.’ With my silver mane and other dimensions they said I was perfect for the part of Silver! Of course, after you forced me to give you such a detailed discourse on the British weight system, I was completely stoned.”
Okay, Peter, you’re off the hook. Say, do they need anyone to play Tonto?
JAY WALKING—Jay Cutler, wearing a suit—a rare occur-rence—and looking sharp, was on hand at the finals and handed out the second-place trophy to Mark Dugdale. Jay admitted he’d gotten goose bumps when I announced him as the “newly crowned Mr. Olympia” and the crowd gave him a rousing ovation. “It was like winning the title all over again in Vegas,” he said. “I didn’t sleep real well that night, excited that I finally am Mr. Olympia!”
Later, he joined the crowd at the after party, which was held at the new Jazz Institute at the Paseo Colorado mall, across from the Pasadena Civic. He didn’t display any dance moves, but he did get off some funny lines directed at Ron Avidan, me (of course), Chris Cormi-er and some of the othCormi-er major names in the industry who dropped by. He’s a funny guy if you get the chance to know him.
Jay’s seminar, held on Sunday at 3:30 p.m., was packed even as the weekend was winding down. Cutler’s blue-collar background and work ethic help him connect strongly with the fans, and he knows how to handle the occasional stupid questions thrown his way. (You know what type I’m referring to.) All in all, the fans really appreciated having a down-to-earth, everyday Joe holding conversation with