Dexter Jackson, Jay Cutler, Kai Green, Victor Martinez, Phil Heath, Dennis Wolf, Branch Warren, and Toney Freeman comprise the most anticipated Olympia top Olympians, since the infamous showdown in 1998 that began King Ronnie's reign. Vegas is battening down the hatches for the rest of the storm our industry is bringing, and that includes RXMUSCLE's wall to wall coverage of the O. Be on the lookout for Jimmy "the Angry Bull" Pellechia and Jeff "the Producer" who will be roving all over Vegas getting into trouble and filming it for posterity. Add a little beer to the mix and I shudder to think of what's going to come out of that camera. Whatever it is, I'm sure you guys will love it. A huge thanks to Brutal Alchemy for supporting that cause, and sponsoring RXMUSCLE's coverage of the big show.
Atlantic City picked four of a kind this morning in the Men's pro bodybuilding prejudging. Right out of the gate it was clear that the top row was going to be Troy Alves, Melvin Anthony, Gustavo Badel and Hide Yamagishi. After sever rounds of callouts, the same four ended up in the all-telling final callout. Both Gustavo and Troy brought their A-game.
This year's IFBB Atlantic City Pro is no joke. The prejudging has given us a peek of what's coming tomorrow night and so far, things are shaping up to be very competitive (SEE FULL GALLERY). Today featured the Men's 202, Fitness, Women's Bodybuilding and Master's Figure pre-judging; tomorrow morning (10am) we'll see the Men's Open and Pro Figure pre-judging. The NPC show will then run straight through (starting at 12noon)-- prejudging and finals-- with no break; then right into the evening finals for the pro show.
I've always said, "Bodybuilding lacks smack talk!" That statement was never more true until Ben White came along. Now we have plenty. His latest rant involves statements made last night on a Heavy Muscle Radio special report. Our guest, Stan Efferding, was lamenting his exclusion from the upcoming World's Strongest Pro Bodybuilder lift-off between Johnnie Jackson and Ben White on Olympia Weekend. Efferding's rather extemporaneous diatribe revolved around the fact that he is, as far as official powerlifting totals go, the world's strongest pro bodybuilder.
Anyone who has ever met Dave Palumbo knows that he's anything but shallow. Having made that statement, let me qualify it by saying that Dave is one of the deepest, most soulful and thought-provoking, guys you'll ever meet. He's got a fantastic sense of humor and he's extremely intelligent. Knowing all this, I had quite a bit of self-inflicted pressure to ask him all the right questions and to discuss key topics that would, ultimately, paint an accurate picture of the man behind the legend.
