Thanks to Craig Titus for giving us some insight into what happened at the NOC and more. You can see Craig Titus at the NPC USA's Afterparties, and at Shawn Ray's Muscle Camp the day after the NPC USA's in Vegas. Here is Craig's notes...
Well, May was a great month for me and my best friend Kelly Ryan. I'm so proud of my wife Kelly for winning the Night of Champions Pro Fitness, way to go girl! Myself, I took a very disappointing third place behind the winner Victor Martinez, who definitely deserved to win and Pavol who was placed in second by making up an 8 point deficit to beat me at the night show. Not too many times does an athlete come back and beat another making up 8 points in the posing round.
This is what happened; first let me say I worked with my buddy Jay Cutler for the show. If I had done exactly what Jay said, the out come may have been different but as a result of some minor adjustments, I messed up. The first round, second name called was mine. I was the fullest and hardest I've ever been at this point in my career, I was 251 pounds. That's actual weight, not your typical bodybuilder weight where I add on 5-6 pounds, an actual 251 pounds. It was Victor in the middle, Titus on one side and Kamali on the other. The judges put Victor and I back in the line up and that's the last time we would come out for the first round. That means Victor and I were in first and second, period. Here is when the nightmare began. As I was standing on stage I could feel my muscles were becoming flat and water was being released into my skin, damn that was a terrible feeling! I realized I was spilling over as a result of eating way too many simple carbohydrates. There was nothing I could do except try and keep pumping up, relax (which was impossible considering I was fading) and hope to god I would stay in the top two after pre-judging. I knew I was in the top two and I wanted to stay there.
By the third round I totally spilled and I became flat as a pancake! This was really bad considering Victor got harder as I became softer looking. As a result I took second after pre-judging and Victor was now in a definite first. At this point I never thought Pavol was close to me nor Kamali for that matter, honestly I was thinking more in the lines of Johnny Jackson being right behind me in third.
After pre-judging some of the judges and other pro's (not my family) told me it was close between Victor and myself and to try and dry out for the night show. I went back to my room and made another big mistake. I thought by eating more complex carbohydrates with no water I could pull the water from my skin back into my muscle, wrong! This made me look worse for the night show which then gave Pavol the nod to place second. I should have gone back to my room, ate a steak and went to sleep.
Like I stated earlier in the year, if I won the NOC I would compete in the Olympia, If not I would sit out until the February season. That's exactly what I'm going to do. After taking a full month off from the gym, I just started my off season mass routine to put on another ten pounds of muscle before the Ironman, Arnold, San Fran, Melbourne and Rome shows starting in February 2004.
And yes, I've seen the picture that Kamali and Chic drew of me at the Weider office, and I've read all the crap Kamali wrote about me on his web site, typical, and I've read all the crap and whining by Chic on the net. All of which is about as class less as the trailer park trash yelling "bullshit!" from the balcony at the NOC. Well, what am I going to say? Nothing! My physique did the talking as it will in the future. They are now in my rear view mirror, period. These two gentlemen, dare I say gentlemen, have been weighed, measured and found wanting! And I was only 80%.................................
I want to take this moment to thank all of my closets friends for supporting me in my preparation for the Night of Champions. A sincere and special thanks to the following people; my loving wife Kelly, Carson & Jaimie Winget, Matt & Monette Cline, Richard Greenbaum, Dennis & Sandra, Tommy & Kelly, Jay & Kerry Cutler, the whole Pinnacle family, Chad Nicholls, Pat Franks, my daughter Ashley, Bethany Howlett, Steve Blechman and Rob Lopez.
Now on to some more important issues; The 2nd Annual USA Championships After Party is a double venue event. The party will start at Seven Nightclub at 3724 Las Vegas Blvd. at the corner of Harmon from 10:30 pm to 2:30 am. From UNLV where the USA is being held, it's a straight shot to Seven. I will be bringing in DJ Juice from Dallas to spin at Seven. You can purchase a VIP booth for $250.00 which will include a huge tray of appetizers and bottled water for all the hungry USA competitors as well as a VIP room that is being sold for $1800 for any high rollers who may be interested. The party will move to Venus inside the Venetian Hotel and Casino from 3 am to close where DJ Noey from Vegas will be spinning. To reserve a VIP booth call Emperor Entertainment at 702-736-7668. Last year the USA After Party was a huge success with over 1500 people showing up, this year we expect more so make sure you get advance tickets at www.wantickets.com. Come on out after the USA and party with some of the sports super stars!
I've been receiving quite a few e-mails from fans asking my thoughts on the new IFBB rules concerning the conduct of its athletes. My honest opinion is this; I truly believe that this notion will clean up the reputation of our sport and allow for more mainstream media to become involved with the competitions. The rules will also prevent certain athlete's from insinuating that judges are taking bribes, or that the contests are fixed because of sponsors... Over time, the credibility of the IFBB would've been lost and there would no fans watching our shows anymore if these rules were not put into effect, bravo.
I have fantastic news to announce, Chad Nicholls (trainer and diet Guru to many of the top IFBB Pros) and wife, Kim Chevezky (6-time Ms. Olympia Champion) gave birth to a healthy, bouncing baby boy this May. Congratulations to you both and your new family. I know that I can say on behalf of many, we are all very happy the birth was successful and healthy and hope that Kim has a speedy recovery.
I would like to let everyone know that Pinnacle Nutrition just recently acquired Cytodyne Nutrition. The two companies will not be merging, but marketed together under the same company umbrella. Mel Rich and Steve Stern approached Kelly and I with new and separate contracts stating that not only were we signed with Pinnacle, but we were to become the new Xenadrine spokes models! We are set to launch an innovative and aggressive ad campaign any day now. We are looking forward to this great and once in a life time opportunity! Thank you goes out to our family at Pinnacle and Cytodyne Nutrition.
My home gym is now built and I'm in the process of hand picking out each piece of equipment that I prefer for each body part. I'm currently working on some deals with a few companies that I will endorse in return for supplying everything I need to fully equip my gym. Kelly and I will start training our client's right here at our home starting next month.
I have two buddies competing in the USA Championships on July 26th, Pat Franks who will be entering the light heavy weight division who I feel will make his mark this year. The guy has thick muscle and is friggin hard as nails right now. Al he has to do is coast into the show. My other bro is Rob Lopez who I feel should by all rights receive his pro card with awesome symmetry and mature muscle that is no rookie to the national stage. I'll be in the front row cheering them both on!!