The pro ranks are watered out.
IFBB should award the winners and runner ups at the world champs pro cards, nobody else.
Right now, there are some 10 pro cards handed out every year for males in North America alone.
Ridiculous.
Make every country send their best guys to the world championships, hand out the pro cards there.
That way, the status of the world champs would sky rocket as well.
-Hedge
And how do you "make" these countries do this? Most competitors at the national level, in the USA, at least, compete for that pro card. If they get it at the Nationals, USA, or the North American Championships, they usually don't care about competing at the Universe, ESPECIALLY if there's drug-testing at the Universe.
As I said before, the last NPC Nationals team to go to the Universe was in 1990, headed by overall champion, light-heavyweight Alq Gurley.
The following year, Kevin Levrone didn't bother to go to the Universe, having already procured pro status (now, who exactly could have forced him to do so?). That's how a certain Texas cop, Ronnie Coleman, ended up going. He was the only one who placed high enough and was willing to do (or actually passed) the drug test. Coleman won the heavyweight class (there was no overall title that year) and got his IFBB card, qualifying to the 1992 Olympia, where he would place "16th". But, he ended up doing a bit better at the O, as the years went by.
Furthermore, I see about a dozen pro cards handed out in North America (all the weight class winners at the NPC Nationals, two weight class winners at the USA, one at the North American, two at the Canadian Nationals, and one at the Team Universe).
Runners-up in weight classes shouldn't get pro cards; they should only go to weight class winners. If the talent pool isn't deep enough, then only the overall champion should get the nod.
