How can you say a guy is balanced when his arms are as big as his waist? Sergio looks totally unbalanced to me. And his arms though huge have no detail. I definately think Arnold looks more balanced head to toe.
Depends on your definition of balance; most BB peeps think that arms, shoulders and lats that are big relative to waist size are desirable, in which case Oliva had an advantage on all counts over Schwarzenegger.
Arnold is nowhere near as well balanced because of the size deficiency in his lower body relative to upper, but posing and good cuts always helped divert attention away from the size deficiency. Nor does he have the same degree of V taper, which are some of the most important considerations in BB. This is what makes it so close there even if Arnold had better refinement & quality in that show.
As far as a relative lack of detail, (1) he had better detail and overall better conditioning that was closer to Arnold's at other times than at the '72 show, (2) his arm detail looked a little better in other poses, (3) he used too much oil at the show, (4) factoring in advantages in proportional arm size and forearms his arms were close to Arnold's.
There aren't many shots of Oliva at his best with good conditioning, so it's easy to draw the wrong conclusion.
