Despite the bad weather, the Arnold Classic was more jam packed than ever with new events, more booths, and more people in a brand new state of the art venue. Even more surprising was that the WWE played host to an NXT wrestling show. This event could possibly lead to more involvement in future shows. Many professional wrestlers were bodybuilders at one point including John Cena and Triple H who competed in the NPC for may years. Essentially they are sort of like our wayward brothers and sisters. Anyway, on with the results
Arnold Classic 212 DivisionJose Raymond finally brought home the No. 2 prize in professional bodybuilding with this win. His grainy and shredded physique pretty much sealed the deal alongside all of the mass you can possibly pack into 212 pounds. Hidetada Yamagishi followed with second place, he was not as shredded as he normally is but his conditioning as posing was good enough to hold off Eduardo Correa who had a noticeably smaller arm that he possibly injured prior to competing. Aaron Clark finished 4th losing one place from last years finish of 3rd. He has plenty of potential and came in looking great but he seriously needs to pack on more muscle. Charles “The Tank” Dixon bulldozes his way into the Top 5. Charles has always had plenty of muscle but this year he added on a much more harder and conditioned physique. A few simple changes and this mini-Ronnie Coleman will be destroying everyone in the field including Flex Lewis. \
Arnold Classic Physique DivisionI think it should be said that its going to take a lot to knock Juliana Malacarne off the top spot. The reigning Ms Olympia came in amazingly sharp as usual with lines reminiscent of a 50’s classic car. She has the looks also to back it up so with that combination, she’s becoming a great representative of the sport. Dana Linn Bailey galloped once again into the second place spot. While its clear that she was not horsing around with her training, it appears that she was not as conditioned enough to match up with Juliana. I think the biggest issue is that she travels way too much around the world which ultimately hurts her chances. She needs to get at least 2 months in the stable without any globetrotting in order to have a chance to beat her. Tycie Coppett finishes 3rd similar to her appearance at the Olympia. She has a great physique and has all the opportunity to crash the party at this year’s O for the win.
Arnold Pro Men’s DivisionApparently, a number of top competitors such as Dennis Wolf, Kai Greene, or Shawn Rhoden was MIA at this event. Considering the fact that the top prize for the show is 130k, its very odd that these folks would pass on the opportunity to make some cold hard cash. However for Dexter Jackson, he’s knows a good deal when he sees it so he came to Columbus, OH and will be flying home with a hefty bounty and making himself a 5 time Arnold Classic Champion. He didn’t get it quite easily though because Branch Warren almost busted up his fortune as he came in the best condition since his 2nd place finish at the Olympia a few years earlier. Justin Compton edged out Cedric McMillan for the 3rd spot as this gentlemen is moving up the ranks quite rapidly. Evan Centopani finishes out the Top 5 with his heavily muscled physique. Evan was considered a dark horse spoiler by some with the exception of myself. I simply think that he needs to do more competitions as he was tiring out during the comparisons which may have hurt him ultimately in the placings. He’s finished higher before at this event so there’s little excuse for him to not take out Cedric and especially Justin. Either way, he’s punched his ticket to the Olympia so hopefully we’ll see a better Evan at that time although I would like to see him get it on at some of the other shows
We’ll be posting up the full results shortly but in the meantime, go watch a movie or something…..
