methzer was never a contender. methzer still would have been in 4th place even if Arnold had never entered. This whole Arnold vs methzer thing was created years later as methzer was never a real threat onstage. He was a footnote and nothing more. Classic case of revisionist history. He became a contender years after the fact when he had a resurgence of popularity from his HIT training system. Back in 1980 he was just a footnote. Now, somehow he was better than Arnold which isn't true. People can’t seperate their need to embellish his brief competitive record because they like HIT. So they make it seem like Arnold and methzer were rivals, when Arnold barely knew methzer existed most of the time. Arnold's only rivals were Sergio, Nubret and Ferrigno. methzer just wasn’t worth noting as competition and no one would remember him if he hadn’t become an author of HIT books later in life.
methzer couldn’t even beat Zane or Dickerson and they were pretty small. HIT devotees want to deify their idol though so they won’t stop claiming he was the rightful winner despite the evidence. Ludicrous. methzer places lower than he felt and spends the rest of his ‘career’ whining about it.
methzer came in bad shape. He had a deflated chest, undeveloped back, narrow shoulders, deformed traps, protruding gut, wide hips, fat ass, small arms with no peak along with poor posing. You are not going to win against superior bodybuilders with the look methzer had in 1980. Very poor.
And another thing about methzer, his HIT is BS. Did he train like that? Nope. First he says train 4 days a week, then his HIT gets more minimal over the years so he can get some attention. Finally, how often did he advocate training a bodypart- once every 12 days or something? Just a pile of BS to generate money. Nothing more.
As for Arnold not being at his best is he didn’t need to be. He didn’t have to be at his best. Do you know why Arnold risked his legacy to compete one more time? Because it was a WEAK line-up. All the major contenders were gone like Sergio, Ferrigno and Nubret and all Arnold had to do was beat a bunch of B-Listers who were half his size. None of them could be a dominate Mr Olympia they were just keeping the seat warm until a guy like Haney showed up.
Zane beat methzer at the 79 Olympia but both guys were pretty small, and in 1980 methzer finished a distant 5th while Zane got 3rd. There were a lot of guys in the contest but they were all B-list or C-list in some cases so stacked doesn’t mean much at all just a lot of filler. Now if an A-list guy like Sergio had of competed Arnold may not of entered. Only Samir had the potential and drive but he finished 15th in 1980. So yeah full but weak line-up at this contest.
The big guys had moved on, and the second tier guys were left or do you really think a small guy like Dickerson could have beat Sergio? Nope. Between the Arnold and Haney years was the rise of the smaller, skinnier Olympians who put more emphasis on conditioning rather than mass.
Anyway Zane was way off, Dickerson was too small and Samir was a long way from achieving his potential so none them posed a significant threat to Arnold which is why he entered and won.
