Of course Ronnie improved from 96-97 to 98-99; however, Hulkster acts like he went from being a complete nobody to a God! He was a legitimate top 10 contender--7th in 96, 9th in 96--and then peaked to win a close contest in 98. In the RDB posted by ND, Ronnie's back actually looks thicker to me in 97; as for Hulkster's front relaxed pics, RC's size doesn't look much different, but his conditioning looks much improved in 99.
Wasn't RC actually lighter in 98 than 97?
In my opinion (subjective of course), Dorian would simply have too much mass for a lighter Ronnie, like 98-02, to win; similarly, when Ronnie was super massive in 03-05, he would lose to Yates based on condition.