and that is one of the many reason why the dorian side's argument is flawed.
bodybuilding competition is not based on mathematics, body fat percentages or magnetic resonance.
But
you raised the point that Dorian was holding water on several bodyparts except lower back and abs. You didn't say that Dorian looked soft; you said he looked soft because he wasn't dry. There's a difference.
it is solely based on appearence.
Exactly. And your mistake is in assuming that Dorian didn't have an appearance that indicated conditioning. Your mistake is in assuming that superior overral separations are an indication of better conditioning, which it is not. Separations are to some extent related to tendon attachment sites, which have nothing to do with either low bodyfat or water levels. Wheeler had better overral separations than Dorian even when he was off, which indicates, ergo, that separations are not the end all be all of conditioning.
When you lose bodyfat and subcutaneous water your muscular separations tend to improve, yes, but it is not the only thing that improves: the texture of the skin also chages, giving a harder and harder appearance as fat and water levels drop. In the most extreme cases, the skin texture acquires an appearance of rock, so hard-looking it becomes. This is the case with Dorian.
His separations were never as great as Coleman for reasons other than bodyfat and water levels, and it is not correct to say that he wasn't as conditioned, because the "stony" appearance of Dorian's muscles under the skin are an indication of extremely low fat and water levels. Ronnie never had even close to an appearance like that, so it is obvious to deduce that his better overral separations are, to a great degree, innate.
and, like I said, dorian may have looked GREAT standing next to nasser and kevin.
Actually, he looked good next to Shawn, Dillet, Fux, Wheeler, Cormier, etc, and flat out destroyed them with straight-firsts scores from
all judges in
all rounds practically every time they met.
standing next to Ronnie 99 he would have not had such an easy time...
in fact, he would probably lose for the very same reasons (only more of them) that dorian lost to haney:
-relatively the same size
-but with better symmetry/lines/proportion
-and with a better shape and a good back
Bad analogy. Haney defeated Dorian primarilly due to superior symmetry, which Ronnie dosen't have on Dorian. Haney could do a vacuum pose at 250 lbs, had a wasp-waist, a flat stomach, and also proportional calves, glutes and hams. The 1999 Ronnie would get defeated in both muscularity&symmetry by Dorian - except in the front relaxed round, where his smaller waist would work to his advantage. Aesthetics is arbitrary and was never an absolute at any contest, and the only real structural flaw that Dorian had was his wide hips. Game over.
(recall that haney also dominated from the back just like dorian did and ronnie after him)
-a lot of people say that dorian won the contests from the back.
Too bad for you that the point is mute, since Dorian would dominate Ronnie from the back. His lats would be as wide or slightly wider than Ronnie's, but with greater thickness and hardness.
well, Ronnie, unlike dorian, was just as good from the back as he was from the front.
Ronnie is only better than Dorian from the front in the front relaxed round. That's one angle in one of the three rounds! Dorian dominates in all angles and all poses except this!
SUCKMYMUSCLE
