"Sergio claimed he was in his biggest and best shape training under Jones in Deland, Florida."
He was only there for a couple of weeks. He then competed against Bill Pearl for the Mr. Universe in 71. Sergio wasn't at his best and Pearl was at his all time best. Later that year Sergio took his body to insane levels. Sergio competed for so many years in various states of size and condition. At his best he was untouchable. Anyone who has seen him train through the years will vouch that he trained with volume and a lot of it. Sergio always had a fondness for Arthur Jones. He was one of the few in bodybuilding that actually paid him a decent buck.
By all accounts, Jones was not an easy maqn to get along with. He appeared to be a very demanding, no-nonsense, bit of a tyrant who had very little patience for those who thought were fools. And it seems in his eyes most were fools. It seems most did not personally like him and I think that hurt him as far as not being as famous as he should be. I have never met anybody under 40 years old that have even heard of him. But Sergio liked him. He liked that he was an honest straight shooter and did what he said and said what he did. The following is a couple of excerpts of an interview done by Brian David Johnson.
BDJ: Judging from past photos, I believe you were your biggest while training with Jones.
Oliva: No question about it. And it’s too bad… I should have stayed with him. When I went to London in 1970 for the Mr. Universe, everyone knew I beat those guys, including Bill Pearl… I was given second place. From there I was to go to the 1971 Mr. Olympia, in Paris. I spoke to Serge Nubret who asked that I go to the Mr. Olympia since Joe Weider wouldn’t be there to fix the contest. I then flew to Paris, and while there Joe found out I was going to compete. And he refused… he would not let me compete. He said I was suspended for a year because I competed in the non-IFBB sanctioned Mr. Universe in London the year before. He used any kind of trick. He allowed me to do a posing exhibition, but not compete. In 1972, the Mr. Olympia promoter called everyone to go, and everyone did. But Joe didn’t want Arnold to go, but Arnold wanted to compete. (I have nothing against Arnold, he has done very well; many people used him in the beginning, then he used them.) Arnold competed in Essen. By that time, the training I had with Jones allowed me to win the contest by miles. People are still talking about Essen ’72. Even Arnold himself said that he didn’t win, that it was nothing but politics… it was nothing but politics, but they gave it to him. After that contest Weider put the promoter out of the promotion business. Serge Nubret used to be the big man when it came to running contests. Weider also put him out of the business because Serge did not want to run the contests the way Weider wanted to run them his way with the placings predetermined.
BDJ: What opinion do you have of Arthur Jones?
SO: Anything I have to say about Jones is good. He is the only honest man I met in bodybuilding. If he says “I’m going to pay you so much”, he does. If he says that he’s going to train you a particular way, and next year you’re going to look a certain way, then you will look that way. He’s the type of person you like to be around; the type of person you like to deal with since he won’t screw you or use you. Totally different from those other assholes. And everyone who went down to Florida knows that. And it’s too bad… if Jones was the one running all the competitions, there would have been a lot of changes. He should have been the one to run the Mr. Olympia and other contests.