One of the most awaited presence by bodybuilding fans at MuscleContest Brazil, which took place last weekend in Curitiba (PR), was Derek Lunsford. This year, the Open athlete and the current Arnold Classic Ohio champion is one of the main favorites to win Olympia, a title he won in the years 2021 and 2023 – it is noteworthy that he is the only human being in history to win the competition in two different divisions (212 in 2021 and Open in 2023).
In an exclusive interview, the professional bodybuilder spoke about the difficulty that lower competitors have in facing higher and higher bone structures. “We all have our qualities and our weaknesses, no one is perfect. I always do my best to improve my weaknesses and highlight the strengths,” says Lunsford.
“This is what I have been doing in recent years and this has been successful against guys who have better genetics than mine on stage,” says the athlete trained by Brazilian Fabrício Pacholok. However, the US emphasizes that it also has its structural advantages: “I am not saying that God did not give me an incredible genetics for bodybuilding, because He has given.”
One of his main rivals in the IFBB Professional League (International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness) is Samson Dauda. While Lunsford began in category 212, which encompasses lower athletes due to the weight limit, the bodybuilder known as Leo Nigerian has always been the super-heavy category and is the current Mister Olympia, a title he won after almost 140kg on stage last year.
Nick Walker: The Stone in the Shoe
Another point addressed during the bodybuilder’s conversation with Folha de S. Paulo’s Blog Muscle was Pittsburgh Pro. At the time, the US athlete starred in one of the most paste disputes of his career (so much so that at points, there was a technical draw) against Nick Walker. For many fans and experts, including the mutant – who did not participate in the last two editions of Olympia – should have won.
Lunsford arrived for this championship with unshakable morale and the informal title of the main favorite to beat Olympia 2025, considering that he had hit Dauda about two months ago.
Asked about the moral effect that the tight victory against Walker caused it, he was straightforward: “I know there is a lot of expectation when it comes to me. Everyone wants me to introduce myself as well as in the last competition or even better. So if I appear minimally worse than in the last tournament, people will have the impression that I am bad. I think because I am ‘high’ and he is ‘downwards’ at that time, there was this break from expectation, because I did not appear in my 100%, and he appeared. But what happens is that sometimes an athlete in his 95%can hit another in his 100%. “
“It was not an easy task to come better, since I presented something very close to my 100% at Arnold Classic. In the 10 weeks that separated these two championships, I traveled to make attendance, I fulfilled several commitments. I also had personal problems, my grandmother was sick and she died on the eve of Pittsburgh show.
Derek Lunsford, Hadi Choopan, Samson Dauda, Nick Walker, Rafael Brandão and several other bodybuilders will face each other from October 9 to 12 in Las Vegas, United States, to see who Mister Olympia will be in 2025.
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