As the final hours before the start of the 2024 Arnold Classic begin to tick down, there appears to be a growing number of voices in the bodybuilding community who believe Hadi Choopan can unseat defending champion Samson Dauda at this weekend's contest.
Recently IFBB legend, and seven-time Arnold Classic runner-up Chris Cormier joined Dave Palumbo, Chris Aceto, and King Kamali for the RxMuscle Arnold Classic Preview, and laid out, what he believes, Hadi’s path to victory could be heading into the weekend.
“…he’s got to be a lot harder. That was always his thing… that blistering hardness that he had when he first came to the Olympia and took that third and could have arguably been like the winner at that time but they had Ramy and they had you know, everyone else that’s been in the Olympia but every Olympia he has done, he probably had an argument where he could have placed higher or won the thing.”
From the moment he exploded onto the scene back in 2018 during his win at the Portugal Pro, the ability to bring in granite-like conditioning has been Hadi’s calling card and, to a large extent, the thing that propelled him to win the Mr. Olympia title in 2022. However, as we saw at last year’s Mr. Olympia contest, when his conditioning falls short of the high-water mark he set, it becomes an uphill battle when he’s compared to genetically superior bodybuilders like Derek Lunsford, Samson, and even Rafa Brandao – which is a position he could easily find himself in again this weekend if he comes in even slightly off.
During the roundtable discussion Cormier also went on to comment about Hadi’s genetic weaknesses and seemingly endless push to add more size, and the impact that it’s had on his physique:
“…You know just getting bigger and bigger that’s not going to do his body justice if he wants to continue to compete it’s going to become a fine point where weight is not going to be something that’s going to help him get better and better. It’s going to be keeping that shape going and understanding what muscle groups you need to try to improve and the other ones you need to try to harness and keep that where it’s at.”
However, despite his lack of genetic gifts as far as shape and symmetry are concerned, it also worth noting that neither Samson or Rafa have ever placed ahead of Hadi on an IFBB stage which is evidence that when Hadi is at his best, he’s more than capable of holding his own against anyone on a given night – and if he returns to peak form this weekend, history says that it will be too much of a gap for Samson, Rafa, or any of this year’s top contenders to close.
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