&mode=related&search=%22ronnie%20coleman%22
Very interesting video. I think it clearly shows that Ronnie in his middle years was clearly the heir apparent. Now, I realize except for a few exceptions (Haney, Dorian), the Mr. Olympia has had to bide his time to become the champ. Looking at this video and then some footage from the 1997 Mr. Olympia makes one thing clear; IFBB judging is seriously messed up. Now I am not making this a Ronnie vs Dorian thread at all. The reason, that issue has been debated to death over on ND's thread. However, how the hell does Ronnie only make 9th. Even if he came in smooth as baby's ass, this is not possible. The muscle compilation on the guy is insane. Moreover, in 1997, his waist was incredibly wasp like. I can kind of appreciate with ND why he preferred the earlier Ronnie look than later. However, I digress, how the hell does Priest and Fux beat him. No f__king way. What this tells me is that in order to breach the hierarchy of IFBB upper echelon, you have to come in either dramatically better than the year before (1998 vs 1997), or you have their tacit backing from the get go. Ronnie was probably not overwhelming enough to take out Dorian that year (if anybody was gonna do it; it was Nasser as he was groomed from the get go); however, he should have been top five easily. In a true, unbiased show, well, that can be debated for another 300 page thread.
