Lee Haney is giving his take on one of the biggest stars in Open Bodybuilding. In a YouTube video from June 4, he shared concerns about Samson Dauda’s size and argued it could work against him at the 2026 Mr. Olympia.
In 2024, Samson Dauda took out Hadi Choopan and Derek Lunsford to win the Sandow trophy. However, a year later, his pursuit of sharper conditioning backfired. Dauda lacked fullness, and his back looked narrower in rear poses. As a result, he finished in fourth place at the 2025 Mr. Olympia. His struggles continued at the Prague Pro, where he failed to bounce back against Martin Fitzwater.
Dauda used the off-season to add significant mass to his frame. He reached over 350 pounds, with bodybuilding veterans like Shawn Ray expressing doubts about the strategy. Now, Haney is revealing why size alone won’t push Dauda back to the title.
“That’s Not Good” – Lee Haney Shares Concerns Over Samson Dauda’s Size Ahead of 2026 Mr. Olympia
In the Muscle Discord YouTube video, Haney questioned Dauda’s decision to add weight in the off-season and noted that he’s approaching 40.
“I didn’t have to do any crazy diets. I didn’t have to aerobic myself to death or gear myself to death and do crazy stuff. When you put on that kind of size, you have to wonder is it going to click? Will I peak with this? Because as you get older, the body does some stuff differently.
I was 31 years old… so I think Samson is what [close to 40], yeah, so it’s a little bit different. Everything works differently: your growth hormone levels, your T levels, all of that is different, so you got to be conscious of that,” Lee Haney said.
He explained that Dauda has fewer weaknesses than Chinedu Andrew ‘Jacked’ Obiekea:
“His lines are very, very nice. I prefer his physique over Andrew. I think Andrew has got a few weaknesses going on.”
During his era, Haney never went above 15 pounds during off-seasons.
“We never did that [put on tons of weight in the off-season]. In our era, we trained up for a show, we never trained down. 12 or 15 pounds was the most that we’d ever do, at least I would, anyway.”
He questioned Dauda’s plan for more size, sharing that losing the weight could ramp up cortisol levels during prep. For those reasons, he doubts Dauda can present his best onstage.
“Dang, that’s not good [Samson’s size]. That looks to me to be overtaxing. I would rather him cruise in and not have his body producing cortisol and all that kind of crap by being stressed out from too much cardio. That’s what’s going to happen. Cardio, cardio, or starvation, that kind of deal.”
“You can’t be at your sharpest when that kind of stuff happens. You just can’t. If we had like, six months, then we can have a conversation. We are talking 15 weeks. We are in a position where we are hurrying up to try to fix stuff. I could be wrong.”
Lastly, Haney addressed the lack of long Mr. Olympia reigns in modern bodybuilding.
“Every so often, Mother Nature puts together the excalibur of physiques. Every so often, and it’s not too often. Arnold was one of those. I was one of those. Jay Cutler was one, Phil Heath, Ronnie, Bumstead, there’s certain people that’s born with certain stuff that can’t be duplicated.”
“To see that is a rarity,” he said. “The closest thing to it [today] is Samson.”
Haney recently shared advice with Dauda and Jacked that was inspired by bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger. He stressed that both competitors need to ‘stand tall and pose big’ at the 2026 Mr. Olympia against shorter athletes like two-time champ Derek Lunsford.
Haney is adamant that Dauda’s plan for more size could prevent him from winning another Mr. Olympia title. The event takes place from September 24-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
RELATED: Lee Haney Warns Against Harmful Drug Use in Bodybuilding, Pushes for Global Judging Panels
