My two cents…
A major 'flaw' of Ronnie's physique - that surprisingly goes more or less unnoticed - is his lack of a huge ribcage. That flaw is noticeable in a lot of poses. That’s why, despite the many amazing individual bodyparts, Ronnie is not as dominant in many poses as we should believe. This is also due to him not being a good poser. You often don’t get the dominance of Ronnie by comparing poses. Instead, Ronnie’s unbelievable mass is most visible when you see him moving in-between poses or walking in the gym etc. He is not able to reflect this as much as one should believe in the mandatories – especially from the front and side. Just look at all the pics taken of Ronnie, how many astonishing pics are there of Ronnie in the mandatories (front/side)? Amazingly just a few are really amazing. With that back, how is it possible not to have a better FLS? That’s why you see Hulkster almost always uses the same pics to illustrate Ronnie’s greatness in certain poses.
Anyway, I think Ronnie’s inability to really display his mass in the mandatories is due to his lack of a huge ribcage. It simply hurts him in a lot of poses. He being a bad poser is also due to this (and not only his posing ability).
From the side:
The side chest: It’s only his mass that saves him, because he is not striking the pose in a good way. With that mass he should blow the others away (which he sometimes does, but not often enough or to the extent one should believe). Yates, on the other hand, does not have an extraordinary chest at all, but having a ribcage makes it a good pose anyhow. Also, the ribcage gives Yates thickness from the side. Not to mention Arnold, that had both the rib and the mass (or Lou).
Quarter-turns/relaxed from the side: This is Ronnie’s weakest ‘position’. Here, he does not stand out at all - despite out- massing his competitors. I guess this is the 'pose' that really makes Ronnie almost disappear.
From the front:
FDB: With those muscles, one should think Ronnie’s FDB would be better and more dominant than it was. Of the many pics of his FDB, there are only a few where he is really great in that pose. Thos having a huge ribcage has an advantage in this pose. They get some vacuum; the pec-line becomes more visible; their lats become more flaring etc. Take Arnold and Lee, and even Yates.
FLS: Same goes here. I guess there is only one good pic of Ronnie in that pose, and we all know what pic that is… In other pics, we get a ‘glimpse’ of the mass, but his inability to rise and expand his ribcage makes it more of a mess of mass… Here, just look at how Lee and Yates lift their huge ribcages, which makes the pose aesthetic and three-dimensional
Hulkster… Of course, there are a few more good pics (but surprisingly few, despite the many pics taken). Anyway, with those muscle bellies and that mass, one should believe Ronnie would dominate the mandatories to a much larger degree.
I think Haney had the best structure of them all…
