Derek Lunsford’s Road To 2nd Olympia Win? – IronMag Bodybuilding & Fitness Blog

by Christian Duque

We are just about 6 weeks from the 2025 Mr Olympia and all eyes are on Derek Lunsford. He has done this with very few other Champions in the past. Despite losing his title after only holding it one year, Derek was able to go to the Arnold Classic, the second biggest bodybuilding show in the world, and pull off an upset. number one it’s very rare for defending Mr Olympia to compete anywhere but the olympia. this has become the norm probably for the last 20 or so years.

It has become the norm because Ronnie Coleman, the greatest of all times, nearly lost his title after having held it for quite some time because he tried to compete at the Arnold Classic. He won both contests, but the decision nearly ended his Olympia career. While some competitors can pick many times in just one year, for a reading Mr Olympia to compete at another huge show like the Arnold Classic in the same year presents quite a vulnerability. and that is because of just how much is required to put the body through. and so since that near catastrophic year, no other Mr Olympia has really tried their hand. Nonetheless all Kudos go to the defending Champion Samsung because he actually tried to pull off with Ronnie pulled off. The problem there however is that he lost at the Arnold Classic. and it wasn’t even close. Derek Lunsford came in looking absolutely phenomenal. and won the contest. He defeated the reigning Mr Olympia in Columbus Ohio and it wasn’t even close. It’s just something that put Derek back in the mix at winning back his title. As a result of that loss in Columbus Derek was able to make the case for why he deserved the win. and then a couple of months later he competed again in Pittsburgh, this time defeating Nick Walker. and even though he didn’t look as impressive in Pittsburgh as he did in Columbus Derek was able to secure two decisive wins against two top competitors all at the beginning of a year where he might also go back and win the Olympia.

Now we mustn’t forget that the history is stacked against Derek and any other Mr Olympia trying to win back that title. and well over 60 years of bodybuilding history, of Mr Olympia history, no past Champion has ever been able to regain the title except for Jay Cutler in 2009. I have heard it said that this is just a historical piece of trivia. I have heard people say that this seemingly consistent coincidence doesn’t really rise to the level of anything more than that. But still, it begs the question, how much is coincidence and how much is unwritten law by this point? If only one competitor in 60 plus years has been able to achieve it, what are the odds that Derek will be able to achieve it in 2025? That’s a question that I think needs to be asked.

Aside from the historical difficulty presented by Derek winning back his title we have to look at where Derek is in his preparations at this point. with a little bit over 6 weeks it would appear that he is behind, albeit slightly, from the competition. There are several big names going into the contest. Some guys seem to have a lot of promise and other guys not so much. The ones that offer not so much would be guys in the second and third call outs. These would be competitors that would have had the numbers to a certain extent but also offer a certain degree of competitiveness. It is always the case that somebody from this category will come out guns blazing and pull off some sort of an upset. Whether that means they’ll crack the top 10, sneak into the top six, that detail remains to be seen. But then you have competitors that everybody is looking at and that will more than likely do some serious damage. Of course there’s a reigning Champion Samson, but there’s also a past champion in Iran’s Hadi Choopan. The Persian wolf is looking absolutely phenomenal and is not somebody that believes his time on top is over. Much like Derek, Hadi held the title for only one year. And who knows, maybe Samson will be another single year champion. Then there’s Brandon Curry, another single-year Olympia champion who’ll be in the mix.

And then of course we go back to Big Ramy. Now Ramy hasn’t competed in a couple of years and for the most part is considered to be retired. I consider him to be retired. and that is because although he held the title for 2 years, two consecutive years, he lost it in the very bizarre way he lost it during a year where he controversially snubbed the president by not appearing at his contest to guest post. Now I have heard a lot of people including Bob chicka boo say that there is nothing to this. that it was mere coincidence. But as you know by now, with nearly a thousand articles in the bag for iron man, I don’t really chalk anything to coincidence or happenstance. I am perpetually inquisitive. I like to dig deeper. I like to use as much data and commentary as possible. Now of course, that would be Classic speculation, but that’s a big part of what I do as a journalist. We’re never going to have a judge say that they score a competitor a certain way or ever have any actual evidence as to why there has only been one competitor and over 60 years to win back the Olympics. Therefore a lot of what we do falls into the category of what ifs and trying to create some sense of rational understanding for what it is that we see before our very eyes. and when you have an individual that barely won his first title, only getting to that stage because of a special invite, and then winning again looking like other trash, you have to wonder what little they have to do to win a third time? Because it would seem like the title was theirs for keeps. But then something like what happened in Pittsburgh the year he lost the title happens. He was billed to appear, didn’t appear, and didn’t give an explanation for 10 consecutive days. Then a few months later went to the Olympia looking absolutely insane, better than the year prior where he won, and he lost the title. but he doesn’t lose it by placing second, or third, or even fourth. He loses the title in fifth! and then he goes to the Arnold Classic a couple of months later looking insane, any place fifth again! then he retires. or pretty much retires.

The question now is Will Big Ramy come back in just over 6 weeks and compete at the biggest show in bodybuilding ever since that catastrophic Olympia and that equally catastrophic Arnold Classic, we had not seen him. There have been some Rumblings that he might come by but nothing ever substantiated. If he were to come back and we were to add his name to the mix, that would further complicate Derek Lunsford’s chances of reclaiming the title. It would also probably be the biggest number of Mr Olympia on a stage in history. But all that being said, Derek Lunsford’s road to the Olympia is all about Derek Lunsford. He is beating everybody on that stage, with the exception of Big Ramy at his prime. Therefore at least on paper it would seem like he could win back that title.

Now some have said that Derek looks to be a little bit behind for six and a half weeks out however he is very much on track. He may not look as impressive as the other guys at this point in his prep, but this is his mo. I wouldn’t say that he’s off, I would just say that it might seem as if you were a little bit behind. The beauty of Derek’s physique and the way he preps for the stage, means that even with six and a half weeks out, he is capable of coming in absolutely stunning condition to the contest. and the fact that he is still putting out progress photos and more importantly, progress videos, shows that he is very much where he wants to be. If one thing is for sure, it’s that bodybuilders are very strategic about the content they release. This was not leaked content, this was content that he released. This is the second time in this article that I essentially state the same thing in two sentences back to back. I just want to focus on that even more for this occasion because of the fact that we may very well be seeing what some might call shots fired. It’s not just about the physique that Derek is showcasing for the world on social media but it’s also his facial expressions. You can tell from all the photos and all the videos that he has the eye of the tiger. He looks very confident, he looks very comfortable, and he is not going to allow anything negative to Cloud as judgment. Unlike when he was coming up and the entire industry was looking at him and he had all that pressure on him, he is now able to somewhat ride into the contest under the radar. or as much under the radar as someone of his stature in the sport can. and that too provides him a tremendous advantage that the reigning Champion does not have.

At some point I’m sure that Derek is going to close it up. I don’t think we’re going to be seeing very many updates or pictures from him because that really would not benefit him in the long run; however, for now we are able to see exactly where he’s at. Nick has already long stopped posting and others will probably follow suit. That being said, if anybody can win back the title, it would be Derek Lunsford. At least that’s my estimation. Do you think Derek can win it back? or do you think that the competition, and history to a lesser extent, are going to be just too much for him to overcome?