So here is a little story and a tribute to Kovaks.
The first time I met Greg was in Buffalo New York, I had traveled there with Sonny for his pro debut. It was the old Niagara Falls Pro show and I got to MC it, so it was a very memorable show for me. There were guys there from the WWF representing Vince McMahon and trying to steal talent from the IFBB ranks. They talked briefly to Sonny, a giant Samoan would have been a huge draw for them. He wasn't interested as he had waited his whole career to turn pro and was over the moon to be a part of the IFBB.
This huge kid from Canada came and introduced himself, he loved Sonny's physique and declared himself a fan. Sonny was rapt as he had only been there one day and didn't have a big fan base. This kid was Greg Kovacs who talked about his dream of turning pro one day. It wasn't until years later that Greg was the biggest bodybuilder on the planet, that he reminded us of that meeting all those years ago.
When I had him guest posing in Melbourne in '97 he was huge, the first 400lber, made famous by those Muscletech adverts. I remember a few things from the tour. He had his wife Kim with him, she fussed over him like nothing I had ever seen. Greg was a real sweater and when he ate would sweat up a treat. As soon as head would bead up on the forehead she would go into a panic "Greg, Greg, wait up, wait up, oh Greg" She would tear into his bag and out with a towel to wipe his brow and a little portable battery operated fan. She would sit there holding the fan and wiping his brow until he was done eating. From memory, she even chopped up his food and would have spoon fed it to him if required.
I remember going backstage to get him to come out and pose. I knocked on his change room door loudly, "Hey Greg, your on, lets do it!" No answer, again I knocked, "Hey Greg, your on, lets go!" I hear a muffled reply, "I'll be out soon". So this goes on for about 10 minutes, still he won't come out. So I went into my change room adjacent to his and put my ear to the wall to hear what the fuck was going on. It went something like this, "Kimmy I feel small, they're going to laugh at me, I don't want to go out there." Kim was reassuring him, "Greg, you're the biggest guy they have ever seen, they will love you, c'mon you can do it." This went back and forth until he finds his mojo and calls out, "I'm ready"
I introduce him, he brings the house down. All is good.
We had a young guy in the show called Ahmad Popol, a refugee from Afghanistan, He was a good kid that hung around the gym and loved to compete. He was about 120lbs. So we brought him out to pose with Greg who was agreat sport about it. As a promoter I was spruiking "The world's biggest bodybuilder meets the world's smallest bodybuilder!" The crowd loved it and we had a great show.
He was a nice guy and easy to work with, despite overheating, lacking confidence and being out of breath most of the time.
