True Confessions: When Jay starting winning Mr. O is when I quit caring about pro BB'ing. I was never a fan of his physique--he was big, blocky, and relatively featureless compared to the sick detail and "pop" of Coleman. When Heath started winning, my interest was somewhat rekindled--say what you want about his personality (it's not just him, it's his whole social media-centric generation), his physique is sick and gnarly and interesting to look at. Heath is a freak, like Roelly and Ramy.
Sorry for derailing this thread which was supposed to be about Jay.
Though I agree with you about Heath. When he won in 2011 I actually thought to myself "Wow! Show's over, there's your winner."
But I liked Jay more. He was a fighter (I know I know, this is a battle of the thong, not an actual "battle"). The competition was just more interesting with Jay, because he wasn't an automatic winner. There were guys on that stage with him that had MUCH better shape, structure, genetics, etc... but he beat them by outclassing them and outworking them. I started lifting around the time Jay just won his first Mr. O, and that's how I got introduced to the IFBB and the bodybuilding world. When I saw Jay on the cover of MD, I thought to myself that THAT'S what I want to look like. I have a wide waist, I'm kind of blocky, I don't have the best structure (in fact, I have very sub par structure).
Of course nowadays I have bigger dreams than just packing on muscle and being judged by 7 guys in suits lol. But I still think of Jay as the guy who motivated me to work my ass of in the gym, eat around the clock, and live like a monk so that I could compete and not embarrass myself on stage.
