not true, shadow. watch the fibo 1994 posing, and see that next to an offseason dillet, nasser, and yates, richards is still bigger than them all. would he have won a sandow? probably not, there's little indication he had any ability to get contest conditioned, his back wasn't that great, and he might be a dennis james type that loses tons of size getting the last bits of fat and water out.
but no one was as big as richards with as small of a waist in an offseason-ish kind of look.