M1 ... don't let your personnal opinion about the personality of a bodybuilder affect how you judge his physique. His results over the past 2 years clearly show that he is at least among the top 5 in the world. His Olympia results put him as 3rd in the world, but I'll give you 2 places to spare!
From your earlier posts I noticed two trends:
1. You LOVE Lee Priest (hey... he's my favorite bodybuilder too)
2. You HATE Badell
Now, not wanting the start anything, but did the fact that Badell beat your favorite bodybuilder (for which you seem to have more than a tad too much "admiration") affect your judging of Gustavo in any way? Since you also posted negative comments about Chris Cormier (who had a short feud with Lee last year) It would seem that your judgement is clouded a bit.
Now, anybody who has judged shows in the past, or who has a vast experience of competing will say that at the 2005 Olympia Gustavo was the 3rd best man on stage *according to the current judging standards*, or at the VERY least put him a certain top 5.
Now, since conditonning can vary so much from show to show, and that it's quite easy to completely mess it up by retaining a bit of water, comming in too flat, overcarbed, bloated, etc. It's fair to say that on any given day, anybody among the top 5 in the world can win any show (if Ronnie is not competing
). So any top 5 man in the world competing at the Arnold indeed has a chance to win it. It's all about who shows up in the best shape that day.
Now, as far as Gustavo goes. Don't confuse "stage persona" will his real personality. Do you really think Triple H is a cheating asshole in life just because his Wrestling character acts that way in the ring? Bob Chick said it himself: bodybuilding is boring, and to promote it we need more excitement! I would not be surprised to learn that bodybuilders were instructed to act "controversial" to stirr the pot and increase interest.
Yeah, Gustavo did strip down and challenged Ronnie at the press conference. But Melvin did the same and challenged Darrem telling him that he would win the best poser award (Melvin ended up looking bad because they did not have such award this year). Mustafa and Branch also compared quads at the conference. Last year Gunter challenged Ronnie and Jay joined in the fun and all three had an inpromtus pose down. This year Gunter also said he would beat Ronnie. Then when someone tells Ronnie that they are comming from him he always reply "you must be smoking crack". Every top bodybuilder acts this way, it's how the game is played. In real life, most of these guys are quite nice and approachable.
Also I think that you don't understand the psychological mindset of bodybuilding. Confidence is SUCH an important thing. A lack of confidence can actually ruin a great physique! I've seen guys leaving the weigh-ins at amateur shows almost crying because when they saw the other competitors and they felt intimidated and inferior, when in reality they were actually better than them! As a result it ruined their stage presence and led to holding water (due to cortisol release). Lack of confidence is reflected on stage presentation. So is it surprising that the top pros act overconfident? It's a way to reinforce their belief in themselves as well as an attempt to psych out their opponents. It's fair game, we can see the same thing in any sport. Just look at Maurice Greene before a 100m race... he paces aggressively like a caged animal before the race... Each week a zillion of NFL players say how great they are and how they will beat another player 1-on-1.
Psychological warfare is present in every sport. But if you haven't lived it yourself, its hard to understand and those who act this way will obviously look like assholes to you.
About Gustavo, although I don't know him personally (I've met him once), a friend of mine spent a whole week with him and could not believe how nice and friendly he was.
