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Anytime you have a reigning champion, it\u2019s always been believed that you have to knock him out in order to win. There has always been this sort of aura around whoever holds the title of almost being invincible. We saw it with Lee Haney, we saw it with Dorian, we saw it with Ronnie and we even saw it with Jay going into 2009. This is especially true for the Olympia champion because the Olympia is as we all know the Super Bowl of Bodybuilding. Even though physique-based sports represent a small niche of the sporting world, within that small niche is the Olympia. It\u2019s the undeniable top title in the world. Nobody wins the Olympia by happenstance. You don\u2019t win the Olympia and defeat the best of the best because of some fluke. That might happen with smaller contests of course but not with the Olympia. It\u2019s also highly unlikely to happen with the Arnold Classic or the New York Pro. When we are talking about the Big 3 shows we are talking about a certain level of excellence that you just cannot parallel anywhere else in the world. And that\u2019s why whenever you have a defending champion with any of these titles going into that particular contest, it\u2019s only natural that the media would almost immediately sing the accolades of the reigning champion. It is very unlikely that there will be a champion that the media doubts to the point of supporting anyone but that individual. We saw that a little bit going into the 2010 Olympia, where the media was largely divided between Dexter and Jay. When I say divided I\u2019m saying it more so to be\u00a0 respectful to Dexter who was a phenomenal champion. In reality, the vast majority of the media believed Jay was going to win the title back. Even though it had never been done in bodybuilding history there was just a tremendous amount of doubt whether Dexter could defeat Jay at 100%. And as fate would have it, Jay won back the title and Dexter took a surprising third behind Branch Warren. Nonetheless that was an anomaly. Usually people rally around the champ, but that\u2019s not what we\u2019re seeing this year going into the Olympia. There\u2019s a tremendous amount of doubt in in whether Derek can successfully defend the title.<\/p>\n
Derek Lunsford has brought a lot of this out upon himself. His demeanor has not been that of a good champion. Derek has all of the makings of the all-American Mr Olympia. He\u2019s young, married with a child, he is well spoken and well liked. Well at least he was well like before he became Mr Olympia for the second time. His demeanor especially in this second Olympia term has soured a lot of people\u2019s opinion of him. While it\u2019s totally fine to be self-confident and even a little bit cocky when you hold the top title, his demeanor has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. His self-confidence has translated almost across the boards as arrogance. His self-absorbedness has created a lot of animosity and friction even amongst his own fellow competitors. Guys like Nick Walker can\u2019t stand him. Guys like Andrew Jacked are very skeptical of him. The bottom line is that he has not become a very likable individual. He has essentially employed somewhat of a scorched Earth philosophy with regards to his fellow competitors as well as certain media outlets. He is largely boxing himself in when what he should be doing is growing the sport. Instead of burning bridges, he should be creating them. Instead of making people dislike him, he should try to be more social. Again, you can\u2019t make everyone happy. I totally understand that, but when you are the sport\u2019s ambassador to the world \u2013 you have to kiss a little ass. Did I just say that? I most certainly did!<\/p>\n
Bodybuilding is not a household name. It is not on network television. It needs to be a household name and it needs to be on network television and the person that needs to facilitate that is Mr Olympia. Can anyone honestly say that Derek has employed that mindset? Because I would be the first to disagree with you. And as a result of not growing the sport of bodybuilding and not developing a positive demeanor, I think that a lot of people now are doubting whether or not he can retain the title in Las Vegas Nevada. I think that the motivation for that stems from a bias that he himself has helped to create and because of his own physique limitations.<\/p>\n
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