I attended the Mr. O from 2002-2006 and 03 was easily Ronnie's most dominant showing during those years. In 02 before he took the stage they showed the BFTO footage where looked like a cartoon at around 300 lbs (screen caps are around here somewhere)...the crowd was going nuts...then he came on stage way smaller and out of his usual condition and almost lost to Levrone. In 03 he kept all of the size and it was game over as soon as he hit the stage. No one was close.
But, in 03 Ronnie was no where near as conditioned as this...bigger and fuller, sure, but not more conditioned.
Well yeah, I'm not disputing Dorian had the granite thing going on where Ronnie has more of a pumped look. But conditioning will only ever be a part of the criteria, and Ronnie's not too shabby at 287lb with lines in his ass and hams like nobody else. Dorian had inhuman hardness, but bodyparts like arms, hams and glutes is no contest since Ronnie has detail and striations all over the place, where Dorian had flat but super hard muscle bellies.
Condition-wise Rich Gaspari never beat Lee Haney to the Olympia, even though his condition was superior. Because, like Dorian's best was next to Ronnie's most dominant, he lost out by at least 30lb. I mean Dave Pulumbo has bad-ass conditioning, should he be Mr Olympia? Ronnie has better upper limbs than Dorian, (front and back double biceps, ab and thigh), whereas Dorian had better forarms and calves (for the front and back double forarm, and ab and calf - these are not real poses btw). So you could argue it's even, except for the fact that anyone can see Ronnie has better arms and legs (inc. hams and ass), 2003 Ronnie's delts are a different world to Dorian (whose delt/arm balance was always skewed toward delts - hardly an iron-age quality) , Ronnie's chest is a bunch thicker, and back comparible at Dorian's at his best, although he never had that hardness Dorian had.
But ultimately it comes down to whether Dorian's best stage appearance, '93, would beat Ronnie 2003 or '99. I personally feel that whatever one feels the judges should or would be looking for, the way Ronnie looked with veins popping out and crazy glutes and hams in 2003, plus more size LITERALLY EVERYWHERE, would make it damn hard for Dorian to not lose. I mean, Nasser had no back, so that was different. Flex had way smaller legs and no lat spread. Ronnie had everything, and %5 worse conditioning is still damn good and for the same reasons Haney used to beat Gaspari, Ronnie would triumph.
IT
