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Seeing Keone guest pose in Ontario, Canada, at the Pure Athletic Classic among a who\u2019s who of physique-based competitors speaks volumes about him as a champion. It\u2019s also interesting that the debate regarding The Prodigy\u2019s greatness continues. There\u2019s a growing number of fans who think he\u2019s the best 212 Mr. Olympia in the history of the division. Is he better than Flex? Derek? Is he better than Shaun? We\u2019ll have to talk about this at length in the article because it\u2019s not an easy question for me to answer. I think the more you\u2019ve seen as a fan \u2013 and a writer \u2013 the more difficult these types of questions become. If you\u2019re new to the sport, and Keone is the only champion you\u2019ve ever known, I totally understand how you might think he\u2019s the best of all time. Anytime you have a reigning Olympia champion that\u2019s out there doing the business of bodybuilding, everyone wins. Plus, we\u2019ve heard the banter from the peanut gallery. And we\u2019ve even heard living legends like Lee Priest say that the division doesn\u2019t even serve a real purpose. Priest is a guy who could\u2019ve competed at the weight class, but he opted to compete in the open, earning Top 6 against some real giants.<\/p>\n
The 212 is really one of these divisions that really draws a lot of conversation. I\u2019m not going to lie; I\u2019m somebody that believes that the division has a very important role when it comes to shorter competitors. But on the flipside, I realize that it also has a bit of a difficult run because it doesn\u2019t have an amateur wing. \u00a0Yes, it\u2019s part of the pro league and yes once you earn a pro card in bodybuilding you could compete in The 212, but how many amateur athletes get a pro card with that journey in mind? Very few people want to compete in 212 because it\u2019s not the lighter side of open bodybuilding like it used to be in the seventies, rather, it is in fact a separate division. It\u2019s a division that has bodybuilding in its name, but it doesn\u2019t look like bodybuilding in terms of prize money, recognition, or even in the amount of supporters. A lot of fans simply do not care about that division. A lot of fans would rather watch Classic Physique, for example, than they would 212.\u00a0 That all changes if you have a larger-than-life champion.<\/p>\n
Look at the case of Derek Lunsford. He won the 212 Olympia Showdown but he didn\u2019t even defend the title for a single try. The 212 Olympia was essentially a feather in his cap in the running towards that open Olympia. As soon as he won the 212, he became more sought after for doing open bodybuilding. I think that was always the plan. Now who\u2019s to say if he would have stuck around long enough to defend the title and maybe won a 212 Olympia he would not have been able to grow the sport like Flex Lewis did. I guess we\u2019ll never know. At this point Derek will never compete at the 212 because of the amount of size that he\u2019s put on. I don\u2019t think that he would even do it if he could do it because again the 212 is not on a level playing field as open bodybuilding is. Back in the seventies when Franco won the under 200lb category he could arguably have been as popular as a guy that won the over 200lb category, which was Arnold. That ship has a long sale. The 212 has also experienced some black eyes. For example, it\u2019s not offered at the Arnold Classic, the second biggest bodybuilding show in the world and there\u2019s also no real plans of bringing it back. The reason that it was done away with was largely because of the retirement of James \u201cFlex\u201d Lewis. As soon as the Welsh Dragon decided to retire, so too did the Arnold Classic retire that division from its roster. Therefore, it would have been interesting if Derek had stuck around because if Derek had been able to bring back the lost fans from Lewis\u2019s retirement it may have seen its way back to the Arnold. It may also have seen its way back to bigger prize money as opposed to getting the same prize money as all of the other physique-based divisions outside of bodybuilding.<\/p>\n
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