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I\u2019ve never been a supporter of cancel culture. I don\u2019t like it nor do I care for the political correctness that it tries to push forward. I also don\u2019t believe in racing to my computer to write an article without having all the facts. I know that a lot of folks like to do that because they like to break the story<\/em> and get all the hits, but it\u2019s been my experience that that sort of recklessness always ends poorly. The most important thing to me as a writer is to put my name next to articles that matter. This is why I have nearly a thousand articles for IronMag. This is a reputable publication. That being said, we also pay very close attention to what\u2019s trending and what the people want. Anybody that saw this past weekend\u2019s Arnold Classic knows that there is a lot to unpack. But one of the biggest stories is not that Andrew Jacked won the contest or that Hadi may or may not have announced retirement, but everyone\u2019s talking about Martin. That\u2019s right Martin Fitzwater. Because of the fact that Martin did not shake hands with Nick, because of the fact that Nick accused Martin of allegedly shoving him backstage, and because Martin was elated that Andrew won, an angry mob of fans and media personalities took to social media over the course of the last couple of days. It ended with Martin having practically no sponsors and more or less announcing retirement. Now the retirement wasn\u2019t a formal announcement, it was simply Martin saying goodbye to social media, but the mob seems to have celebrated it as a victory. And as a result of that, I\u2019m writing this article. I\u2019m writing this article as a fan of Martin\u2019s but also as a strong opponent of the feelings police getting the better of the sport. Because at the end of the day, this is a sport about physiques, not canceling people, not forcing people into submission, not getting people to go destitute just because that\u2019s what the mob wants.<\/p>\n I want it on record that I do not support bad sportsmanship. Perhaps on the surface that\u2019s what it looks like, but if you have a deeper understanding of the rivalry between Martin and Nick, you would understand where Fitzwater was coming from. This isn\u2019t the result of some isolated instance. There has been a lot of disrespect from Nick towards Martin. Disrespect that has not gone unnoticed. Martin had to take defeat in New York in 2024 despite the fact he had a better physique than Nick. Martin has also had to process less than stellar placings throughout the course of his career. He has never been what I would call a crybaby. He has never been one to throw a tantrum backstage or reject a trophy from a presenter. But the problem with Nick is different. Martin has never had a rivalry like this with anyone else. Sure, there are media outlets that perhaps he doesn\u2019t hold in the highest regard, and there may be competitors that he doesn\u2019t necessarily want to hang out with, but nothing compares to the rivalry with Nick Walker. And it has not been a positive rivalry either. It has been a rivalry plagued with disrespect, both directly and indirectly, that I think reached the boiling point at the Arnold Classic. I think that Martin was not happy with where the judges had him and I don\u2019t think he wanted to be fake a handshake to be like everybody else. He didn\u2019t shake Nick\u2019s hand because he didn\u2019t feel that that was a sincere action.<\/p>\n I think that in the sport of bodybuilding, the media wants the bodybuilders to act a certain kind of way. I think that a lot of Martin\u2019s biggest critics would be happy if he had extended his hand to Nick and maybe offered him a congratulatory message as well. I don\u2019t think that a lot of the folks that are calling for Martin\u2019s cancellation would have opposed that. I think they would have been totally fine with a fake handshake and a fake hug and just fake all around. But why? Well because it fits the perception that they have for the sport. And that\u2019s just not how life works.<\/p>\n When you disrespect somebody, a lot of people take that personally. They keep it in their mind and they may use it as a motivator or they may use it as a past experience that prevents them from getting burned in the future. But at the end of the day if you\u2019re not going to shake someone\u2019s hand and mean it, why do it? Because it\u2019s good sportsmanship? I think that\u2019s being fake, personally. And like Dave Palumbo said just today, Martin didn\u2019t break any rules, he didn\u2019t break any laws, so why is there such a movement to cancel him?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n