Not so much about poundage, but he never had the genetics to do what he needed to get over the top. He got washed up fast. Rich had a 19 year old Shawn Ray chasing him by 1988. Its all history now and his only bias now is when he judges ifbb shows and penalizes bigger taller compeptitors. Now he is the judging "dragon slayer"
Gaspari was 2nd best in the world from 85-89, not bad for a guy with narrow shoulders and a big waist. Nobody took thier body to the limit more than Rich did in terms of development. Everyone of his bodyparts could be on a list for "best of all time": Quads, calves, hamstrings, glutes, back-after 88 it improved alot, abs-probably top 5 alltime, chest, shoulders...the guy took everything as far as he could. Conditioning was the standard and he set it. He dominated shows that didn't have haney in them. He was just awsome.
Realistically Shawn was hyped as the next big thing and looked great when he won the nationals but he was no threat to Rich until at least 1990, in 88 shawn placed 4th at the NOC and well behind Rich at the 88 Olympia and fell off the radar for awhile. So I don't think Rich was sweating a 19 year old shawn ray...in 1990 it was a little different story but by that time Rich had already begun to tear his body to pieces....