Bodybuilding’s Bandwagon Fans Fill The Bleachers?
By Geoff Roberts
Bandwagon fans are a never-ending
plague within the sports world, a constant pestilence to any true sports fan. The majority of the time bandwagon fans will love and follow a particular team or athlete only while they are on top or at least doing very well.
Some prime examples of this currently are the Miami Heat and Tiger Woods. The Heat has a gigantic following now that they are packed with superstarswhileTiger Woods fans are nowhere to be found because he is no longer winning tournaments the way he’s done in the past.
Bodybuilding bandwagon fans are an entirely different beast, changing their picks and favorites nearly by the day for miniscule reasons. Tiger is a good example to use in a discussion of bodybuilding due to the fact that golf shares the similarity of being an individual sport.
How many times in the last few years have you heard a so-called golf fan say “Tiger sucks now!”? This is a prime example of bandwagon fans who expect Tiger Woods to make the rest of the golf world look like intoxicated weekend warriors as he stomps them time and time again for 50 years. Claiming that the number one ranked golfer in the world (yes, Tiger is still ranked number one) “sucks now” is a fairly extreme example of a bandwagon fan.
Unfortunately, bodybuilding fans and even industry experts make this Tiger example look very mild and commonplace in comparison. In regards to the current IFBB Professional landscape, the four names commonly being slandered by these overzealous bandwagon types are currently Big Ramy, Shawn Rhoden, Jay Cutler, and Kai Greene.
In 2010, a talented rookie
bodybuilder competed at the New York Pro and dominated the field which included a man who had been in the top four at the Olympia and was even considered by some an uncrowned Mr. Olympia but happened to be over-dieted and downsized at this show.
At first glance you may think that 2010 was a typo and I meant to say 2013, referring to Big Ramy and Victor Martinez, but I’m referring to Roelly Winklaar besting Dennis Wolf. These two scenarios are eerily similar, but for whatever reason this comparison has rarely, if ever, been spoken of.
This lack of comparison of Roelly to Ramy may exist because its mere mention might put a serious damper on the immense bandwagon action surrounding Big Ramy. The prevailing notion of many fans and experts had Roelly placing in the top six consistently at that same year’s Olympia and we all know how that turned out.
Ramy was great in New York but to say he will come into his first Olympia and place top three is a bit of a stretch, especially considering his main competition in New York was what I would guess to be a 225 pound Victor Martinez. One also must consider the fact that a 100 percent 245 pound Victor still lost to a 90 percent Jay in 2007. So, to presume Ramy is lock for a top spot just because he defeated a 90 percent Victorshould be foolhardy in the eyes of many.
In an opposing fashion to Ramy, Shawn Rhoden is being “bandwagoned”out of the top three by fans as well as someindustry insiders, for the simple fact that Rhoden has been off the radar for most of the year. Last year Shawn went from struggling to make top three at smaller shows to teaming up with Chris Aceto and winning two shows in a row in a fairly convincing fashion. Shortly after these shows, Shawn managed a solid third place at the Olympia. Continuing his winning ways, Shawn then flew overseas to dominate various other pro shows.
It’s also important to note that Shawn accomplished this transformation in well less than a year’s time. So if Shawn can win back-to-back shows then go straight into the Olympia with little to no rest and place a convincing third, what force on earth is going to prevent him from placing top three this year after an entire year to rest, recover, and improve, as well as work with Chris?
Unless Hany is cloning Phil Heath in some underground lab somewhere, it becomes difficult to place Shawn out of the top three this year in any well thought out prediction. A true bodybuilding bandwagon discussion of 2013 cannot be had without discussing Jay Cutler and Kai Greene. If you were to ask five bodybuilding fans who will place higher this year of these two men I would bet that four of them would say Kai Greene due to the fact that he placed second to Phil last year and Jay has not competed in almost two years. Talk about forgetting the past! If bodybuilding fans ran the country we may be on our third or fourth abolishment of slavery by now.
First and foremost Jay and Kai are close to the same age so let’s get that out of the way before Jay’s age gets brought up enough times to match the national debt. Jay has placed first or second at the Olympia ten times. That’s not a typo. Kai has never won and has only been second once – conveniently when Jay was not in the show. Kai has also placed as low as seventh and fourth in recent years.
Another interesting fact
or is that – with the exception of 2011 when Jay had a torn biceps and was 90 percent of his best – Kai has never even managed to finish directly behind Jay at the Olympia. As if that were not enough incentive to form the general opinion that Jay will finish ahead of Kai this year, you also have the all-important topic of gurus.
Last year, it is pretty well-documented that Kai was stepping out on George Farah(maybe I should bring Tiger up again?) with Ron Noreman. Ron has since said that he is very disappointed with Kai for keeping his aid a secret and they are certainly no longer working together. This could spell absolute disaster for Greene this year considering George has yet to get Kai in great shape. Jay on the other hand hooked up with his old pal Chris Aceto who just so happened to help Jay achieve his greatest look ever in 2001 and also helped Jay defeat the legendary Ronnie Coleman in 2006.
According to Shawn Ray, Jay has so much “stacked against him” he might as well be on mega-doses of prednisone and show up in a wheel chair. When you look at the facts you may find that Shawn's view is somehow tainted and in reality Jay has everything going for him. The same cannot be said for Kai Greene.
In the minds of most bodybuilding fans, this is going to be the most exciting Olympia of all time. Especially from places 5 to 10 where the futures of bodybuilding such as Big Ramy, Evan Centopani, Steve Kuclo, Roelly Winklaar, Brandon Curry, and Juan Morel will battle it out in an attempt to show us who truly is the future of our sport.
As far as the top few spots go, I strongly suspect Phil Heath will remain king of the IFBB just as Tiger Woods will remain king of the PGA. That’s right, no bandwagon fan here, I’m predicting Phil takes his third Sandow and that Jay Cutler will once again stand – as wide as he is tall – as one of the top two bodybuilders in the world for a mind boggling eleventh year.
