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It\u2019s really starting to look like 2026 will be the year of Andrew Jacked. I mean listen a lot of times fans will talk up a big game for their favorite bodybuilder without much to go on. The same thing happens with overzealous supplement companies that really want to push their athletes to the largest possible audience. They accomplish this by making all sorts of outlandish claims about what a competitor can do on stage, what they have done on stage, and what they will do. A lot of times it just comes down to marketing puffery. It\u2019s basically just a lot of talk with very little substance. But in the case of Andrew Jacked, we have all of the makings of what could become a very clear-cut path to the 2026 Olympia winner circle. And this is because in 2025, he was able to earn top three status at the Super Bowl of Bodybuilding. Then a few months later he goes to Columbus, Ohio and he not only beats former Mr Olympia\u2019s in Hadi Choopan and Brandon Curry, but he\u2019s able to defeat Nick Walker looking his best in years. He\u2019s also able to hold his own against Martin Fitzwater, another Top 5 Olympian.<\/p>\n
So what does this mean? Well what it means is that Andrew is in a unique position. He is in such a unique position that pretty much everybody in the sport of bodybuilding, including reigning Champion Derek Lunsford, has now been forced to take immediate notice of the tall man with the perfect X-frame. That is because Andrew towers over guys like Derek, guys like Hadi, and even guys like Martin. In reality, if the Olympia became a showdown between Andrew and Samson, everybody else would stick out like a sore thumb. Could this be a turning of the proverbial page in the sport? Could we be seeing a change of the guard?\u00a0 These are all very good questions, so let\u2019s jump right into the action!<\/p>\n
Tyler [Manion], the vice president of the Federation, just came out publicly to explain why Andrew won the contest over Nick. There has been a little bit of conversation on the various message boards and Facebook groups, but the reality of the matter is that the Federation got it right. And not only did they get it right, but the vice president took to the airwaves to defend the position. Ultimately what you have is a mass monster in Nick, with freakiness, veins popping everywhere, and tons of size. But at the end of the day is that really the direction that bodybuilding wants to go in? It\u2019s a direction the sport knows all too well; sometimes with\u00a0 drastic consequences.<\/p>\n
Bodybuilding is a sport that has always been about symmetry, balance, and flow. Anybody that looks at Andrew\u2019s physique next to Nick\u2019s physique, is going to want Andrew\u2019s physique to be what the trophies look like and what every competitor strives to achieve. It\u2019s okay for Nick to be one of a few mass monsters, but that\u2019s not the direction the sport should go in. And while politics do factor in, I can honestly say that the Arnold Classic is the least political of all the shows. So it makes me very happy to see Andrew emerge victorious from this particular show.<\/p>\n
It should also be noted that the Arnold Classic is the second most prestigious bodybuilding show on the planet. Not only is it the second most prestigious, but it is the first in terms of purse. Nobody pays more money than the Arnold Classic and the fact that Andrew was able to win this contest sends a very strong message to his competition some months down the road at the Olympia. Also, even though Arnold is not a judge, there have been years where he expresses his dissatisfaction with the judges\u2019 decision. That did not happen at the 2026 Arnold Classic. If anything, I would say that Arnold was supportive of the decision.<\/p>\n
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