2026 Mr. Olympia Men’s Open Preview: 11 Top Contenders Chasing Derek Lunsford

The 2026 Mr. Olympia Men’s Open contest has a reigning champion with history on his side, two former champions trying to regain the Sandow, and several challengers who have already won major shows this season.

Derek Lunsford enters Las Vegas as the defending champion after reclaiming the title in 2025. Andrew Jacked arrives with victories at both the 2026 Arnold Classic in Ohio and Arnold Classic UK. Samson Dauda, the 2024 Mr. Olympia, chose a different route and returned to competition with a win at the 2026 Europa Pro less than two weeks before Olympia weekend. Nick Walker, Martin Fitzwater, Michal Krizanek, Tonio Burton, Brandon Curry, Behrooz Tabani, Regan Grimes, and William Bonac give the lineup unusual depth beyond the leading trio.

The IFBB Pro League’s current competitor list contains 22 Men’s Open athletes. This preview focuses on the 11 most established contenders and examines why each man can move up, the history he brings to the stage, and the question that could decide his placing. For start times and streaming instructions, see MiddleEasy’s complete 2026 Mr. Olympia viewing guide.

2026 Mr. Olympia Men’s Open at a glance

• Event: 2026 Joe Weider’s Olympia Fitness & Performance Weekend
• Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
• Men’s Open prejudging: Friday, September 25, during the 6 p.m. Pacific evening session
• Men’s Open finals: Saturday, September 26, at 7 p.m. Pacific
• Defending champion: Derek Lunsford
• Official Men’s Open field: 22 athletes

How the leading contenders compare

The championship favorites

Derek Lunsford: the defending champion still sets the standard

Instagram: @dereklunsford_

Lunsford’s Olympia history is already unique. He won the 212 Olympia in 2021, moved into the Open division, placed second in his 2022 debut, and won the 2023 Mr. Olympia. Samson Dauda pushed him to third in 2024, but Lunsford responded with a perfect 2025 season: victories at the Arnold Classic, Pittsburgh Pro, and Mr. Olympia. His 2025 win made him a two-time Open champion and proved that his first Sandow was not a one-off result.

His case for another victory begins with the back poses. Lunsford can create exceptional width through the lats without losing the detail that separates the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back. His compact frame also allows him to present a dense physique with relatively few empty areas. When he is fully conditioned, the judges can move from one mandatory pose to the next without finding an obvious place where the package collapses.

The challenge is the scale of the men standing beside him. Jacked and Dauda are taller and can create a dramatic silhouette in front poses. Lunsford must therefore control the comparison through sharpness, width, and balance rather than trying to look like the biggest man in the lineup. If his front poses hold their shape and his back is at its 2025 level, everyone else is still trying to take the title from him.

Andrew Jacked: the most dangerous challenger on current form

Instagram: @andrewjacked

Chinedu Andrew Obiekea has improved at the Olympia in a clear sequence: eighth in 2022, fifth in 2023, fifth again in 2024, and third in 2025. His 2026 season then supplied the result that changed the title conversation. Jacked won the Arnold Classic in Ohio and followed it with another victory at Arnold Classic UK, showing that he could peak twice and defeat elite fields rather than relying on potential alone.

Jacked’s advantage is structural. At roughly 6-foot-2, he combines the height and muscle expected in the Open class with a small-looking waist, broad shoulders, long muscle bellies, and strong presentation. He can appear enormous without losing the flowing lines that distinguish him from athletes who carry comparable mass. His front double biceps, front lat spread, and side poses can force shorter rivals to fight for visual space.

Olympia titles, however, are usually decided across the complete set of comparisons. The critical test is whether Jacked’s back detail, hamstrings, and glutes match the quality of his front poses after the final stages of peak week. His third-place finish in 2025 established him as a podium athlete. His two Arnold victories make 2026 the first Olympia where anything short of a serious challenge to Lunsford would feel below the trajectory he has created.

Samson Dauda: a former champion with the biggest possible ceiling

Instagram: @samson__dauda

Dauda rose from sixth at the 2022 Olympia to third in 2023 and then won the 2024 title. He also owns the 2023 Arnold Classic championship. His fourth-place finish at the 2025 Olympia interrupted that rise, but it did not remove the qualities that made him Mr. Olympia: exceptional overall mass, a wide frame, round muscle, polished posing, and the ability to remain aesthetically coherent at a bodyweight few athletes can carry.

Unlike Lunsford, who has not competed since the 2025 Olympia, Dauda used the 2026 Europa Pro as a late test and won. That result confirmed that he was healthy enough to complete a contest and gave his team real judging feedback shortly before Las Vegas. It also creates a narrow turnaround, so the benefit depends on whether he can retain fullness and sharpen the final details rather than flattening or carrying fatigue onto the Olympia stage.

Dauda is at his best when size, shape, and condition arrive together. If he is full but not separated, Lunsford can beat him on detail. If he chases dryness at the expense of his trademark roundness, he gives away the quality that makes him different. The 2024 version demonstrated that his championship formula exists. The question is whether he can reproduce it while Lunsford and Jacked are both operating at a higher level than they were two years ago.

The podium and top-five threats

Nick Walker: extreme muscularity with a renewed route to the podium

Instagram: @nick_walker39

Walker placed fifth in his 2021 Olympia debut and third in 2022. A hamstring injury forced him out days before the 2023 contest, and he did not appear at the 2024 Olympia. He returned to the Olympia stage in 2025 and placed sixth, then made a notable move in 2026 by finishing second to Andrew Jacked at the Arnold Classic. Walker secured his Olympia place with a Tampa Pro victory.

No one in this group creates quite the same impression of thickness. Walker’s arms, shoulders, back, and legs make him difficult to ignore in any callout, and his best conditioning gives that mass a hard, deeply separated appearance. Beating Hadi Choopan at the 2026 Arnold also mattered psychologically because it showed that Walker could finish ahead of a former Olympia champion in a major contest.

His task is to make the physique read as one complete package. Against Lunsford’s balance, Jacked’s lines, and Dauda’s shape, isolated body-part dominance will not be enough. Walker needs controlled midsection presentation, consistent fullness, and rear poses that preserve detail from the back through the glutes and hamstrings. If those pieces align, his third-place result from 2022 is a realistic benchmark rather than a memory from an earlier version of the field.

Martin Fitzwater: proven Olympia shape with room to grow

Instagram: @martfitzh2o

Fitzwater made one of the strongest recent Olympia debuts, placing fourth in 2024. He followed with fifth in 2025, finishing one position ahead of Walker. His route back to Las Vegas came through victory at the 2025 EVLS Prague Pro. He then placed fourth at both the 2026 Arnold Classic in Ohio and the UK edition.

Those fourth-place Arnold results are not failures, but they reveal the problem he must solve. Fitzwater has the shape, posing awareness, and proportion to stand comfortably in elite comparisons. The leading three have either won the Olympia or dominated the biggest non-Olympia shows, however, so repeating his established look may only reproduce a fourth- or fifth-place result.

His opportunity lies in refinement rather than reinvention. More back thickness, leg detail, and overall maturity would strengthen the poses where the largest contenders can crowd him. Fitzwater does not need to sacrifice his waist or lines in a late attempt to chase their scale. If he arrives slightly bigger, harder, and more complete than he was at the Arnold events, he has the structure to disrupt the expected final callout.

The athletes capable of changing the final callout

Michal “Krizo” Krizanek: front-pose power after a major Pittsburgh win

Instagram: @ifbb_pro_michalkrizokrizanek

Krizanek placed 12th in his 2022 Olympia debut and climbed to seventh in 2023. After time away from the Olympia stage, he rebuilt momentum with a productive 2025 season and arrived in 2026 ready to challenge Tonio Burton directly. Burton beat him at the New York Pro, but Krizanek reversed that result by winning the Pittsburgh Power & Fitness Festival.

His arms, shoulders, chest, and overall upper-body density give him some of the strongest front shots in the contest. The Pittsburgh win also suggests better posing and a more complete presentation than the version that finished outside the top six in 2023.

The decisive comparisons will come from the rear. To threaten the top five, Krizanek must show back width and detail, hamstring separation, and glute conditioning that match his front-pose impact. A seventh-place finish is his existing Olympia ceiling. Pittsburgh gave him evidence that he can move beyond it, but the depth of this field means even an improved package could be separated from several rivals by small details.

Tonio Burton: repeated 2026 wins make him more than a sleeper

Instagram: @tonio_burton

Burton’s path has crossed two divisions. He placed 10th at the 212 Olympia in 2021, moved into the Open class, and finished 16th in 2022. By 2023 he had climbed to eighth, a position he repeated in 2025. His 2026 season has been even stronger: wins at the New York Pro and Legion Sports Fest Pro, plus second place to Krizanek in Pittsburgh.

That record matters because Burton is no longer relying on one favorable result. He has repeatedly beaten professional fields and has shown that his round muscle, arms, shoulders, and compact presentation translate across different judging panels. The New York victory over Krizanek and the Pittsburgh reversal also provide a useful comparison: neither man has an automatic advantage when both are close to their best.

To break out of the eighth-place range, Burton needs his rear detail and overall conditioning to hold beside athletes who are either larger or more structurally dramatic. His 2026 consistency makes a final-callout push credible. The remaining question is whether the package that wins regular-season pro shows has enough separation to displace established Olympia top-five athletes.

Brandon Curry: the former champion who still owns elite shape

Instagram: @brandon__curry

Curry has the deepest championship résumé among the active contenders other than Lunsford. He won the 2019 Mr. Olympia, placed second in 2020 and 2021, and finished fourth in both 2022 and 2023. His placings slipped to ninth in 2024 and seventh in 2025, but his 2026 results show that he remains competitive: fifth at the Arnold Classic, second at Arnold Classic UK, and third at the Pittsburgh show.

His upper-body structure remains exceptional. Curry can create wide shoulders, full arms, a small-looking waist, and a polished front presentation that still compares favorably with athletes a decade younger. He also understands the Olympia stage and the pacing of prejudging and finals in a way that first-time contenders cannot learn from photographs.

The lower body will determine his ceiling. The more complete contenders can expose differences in quad sweep, hamstring detail, and glute conditioning when the callout turns. Curry does not need to become the largest athlete in the field; he needs the bottom half of the physique to support the shape and fullness that still make his upper body championship caliber. His 2026 UK runner-up result is enough to treat him as a real top-six threat.

Dark horses and accomplished veterans

Behrooz Tabani: six pro wins and a chance to improve on his debut

Instagram: @behrouz_tabani

Tabani reached the Olympia stage in 2025 after earlier qualification campaigns had been complicated by travel issues. His 11th-place debut did not fully reflect the winning record he had built elsewhere. He won the 2022 Romania Muscle Fest Pro, the 2023 Arnold Classic South America, the 2024 Flex Weekend Italy Pro and Dubai Pro, then defended the Dubai title in 2025. He added another victory at the 2026 Huanji Chengdu China Pro.

Six pro wins show that Tabani can finish a preparation and dominate a callout. He brings dense muscle, strong back development, and the type of hardness that can move an athlete upward when more celebrated names miss their condition. His 2026 China victory also means he arrives with a recent judging result instead of reputation alone.

The Olympia question is whether he can make those strengths immediately readable in a 22-man field. Callout position, posing precision, and the transition between poses become especially important when judges must compare many athletes quickly. A move from 11th into the top ten is attainable. A top-six breakthrough would require both Tabani’s best package and openings created by athletes above him.

Regan Grimes: a high-volume season built around a tall, aesthetic frame

Instagram: @regangrimes

Grimes has competed at the Olympia in both Classic Physique and Men’s Open. He placed eighth in Classic Physique in 2018, then finished 15th in the Open in 2020 and 2021, ninth in 2023, and 14th in 2025. Rather than waiting on that result, he competed frequently in 2026. Grimes won the Austrian Oak and PROMUSCLE Italy Pro, and placed second at the Europa Pro, Lenda Murray ATL Pro Supershow, and Texas Pro.

His appeal is easy to understand. Grimes has height, broad shoulders, a comparatively streamlined waist, and a presentation style that can make the Open division look athletic rather than merely enormous. The two wins prove that the look can succeed when his fullness and condition meet.

Consistency is the concern. Five contests in one season provide useful feedback but also demand repeated peaks. The Olympia field will punish any loss of leg detail, back sharpness, or fullness. Grimes can outperform his 2025 placing if the version that won in Austria or Italy appears in Las Vegas. Moving all the way into the top six would require the most complete Open package of his career.

William Bonac: eleven previous Olympia appearances and renewed 2026 momentum

Instagram: @william_bonac

Bonac’s Olympia history stretches back to 2014. He placed third in 2017, fourth in 2018, and second to Brandon Curry in 2019. He later finished fifth in 2020, sixth in 2021, ninth in 2022, seventh in 2024, and ninth in 2025. He also won the Arnold Classic in Ohio in 2018 and 2020, establishing a major-show record that most of the current field cannot match.

The 2026 season has shown that Bonac is still capable of winning. He took first at the Empro Classic Spain Pro, placed second at FLEX Weekend Italy, and won the France Pro. His compact frame carries exceptional muscle maturity, and decades of posing practice allow him to display detail without wasting movement.

Bonac’s obstacle is not experience or muscle quality. It is how a shorter, compact physique reads beside the enormous frames of Jacked, Dauda, and the newer generation. He must be significantly sharper to overcome their scale while keeping enough fullness to avoid looking depleted. A return to the top six would be a major achievement, but his two wins this year make it unwise to treat him as a ceremonial veteran.

MiddleEasy’s 2026 Mr. Olympia contender forecast

Lunsford deserves the favorite position because he is the reigning champion and has finished first or second in three of his four Open Olympia appearances. Jacked is the clearest challenger after winning both 2026 Arnold contests, and Dauda remains capable of beating the entire field because he has already done it once. Walker and Fitzwater form the next tier: both have the tools for the podium, but each must produce a package more complete than his most recent Olympia showing.

1. Derek Lunsford
2. Andrew Jacked
3. Samson Dauda
4. Nick Walker
5. Martin Fitzwater
6. Brandon Curry
7. Michal Krizanek
8. Tonio Burton
9. Behrooz Tabani
10. William Bonac
11. Regan Grimes

This is a pre-contest forecast, not a claim about results that have not happened. Men’s Open placings can change sharply between prejudging and finals, and the final result will depend on the condition shown under the same lights, in the same callout, on the same weekend. The clearest competitive question is whether Lunsford’s complete package can again overcome the scale and structure of Jacked and Dauda. The deeper question is which athlete below that trio can force the judges to change an established hierarchy.

For recent historical context, revisit the 2023 Mr. Olympia Men’s Open results and the 2022 Mr. Olympia Men’s Open results.

Published on September 24, 2026 at 9:47 am

Stay up-to-date with the latest MMA news, rumors, and updates by following the RED Monster on
Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, and Instagram. Also, don’t forget to add MiddleEasy to your Google News feed
for even more coverage.