They Don’t Call Him The Conqueror For Nothing! – IronMag Bodybuilding & Fitness Blog

by Christian Duque

I can’t believe it’s been almost 5 years since I wrote an article for IronMag talking about how ignored and overlooked William Bonac was. At the time it was just a year after he placed second at the Olympia. He had won the Arnold Classic and was on fire. Everybody was talking about him on the message boards and the Facebook groups, but sadly he was largely ignored by the bodybuilding media and many promoters. The media didn’t want to cover him because he didn’t talk any smack. He did the business of bodybuilding, which consists of hardcore training, hours upon hours of posing in the mirror, and leading a very rigid lifestyle with regard to supplementation and nutrition. William was all about bringing his absolute best to the stage. And he nearly won the Olympia back in 2019. Nonetheless, even with all of those accomplishments and all of those accolades, it was as if he was a ghost.

William Bonac has always been a competitor who gave his all on stage. Has he had rivalries in the past? No, not really. Years ago, Shawn Ray made some comments that ruffled his feathers a little bit because after all he’s only human, but beyond that William is not an individual that has a hard time getting along with his fellow competitors. If anything, William has been a consummate professional in everything that he does. Even when he lost the Olympia to Brandon, he came out front and center to congratulate him and to make sure that his fans did not talk trash about The Prodigy. Not the same can be said about a lot about other athletes.

Bonac is somebody who has overcome adversity. At one point he was a 212 competitor that grew into the open at a time when that was unheard of. He has overcome height, mass, and still come out as being one of the best bodybuilders in the world. Is he going to out-mass someone like Ramy or Nick Walker? No, probably not. But that was never the point. He brought about a physique that made him stand out from the rest. He may not have been the tallest or the biggest, but his genetics and his hard work made up for anything he was lacking in those departments. And as a result, the judges rewarded him for all of his hard work.

Bodybuilding has become this sort of anomaly. It started out in the 40s and 50s as being a physique-type endeavor. Then as the sixties and seventies rolled in, anabolics became more of a factor. By the ’80s and ’90s bodybuilding became a size contest. I mean there was always the question of size in the ’70s and the 80’s, but nothing like what came about in the ’90s. The bodybuilders got so much bigger that they just continued to push the envelope generation after generation. By the time the 2000s and the 2010s rolled around, there were guys that were literally astronomically bigger than the competitors back in the Golden Era and even in the ’80s. And here you find a very interesting contrast in the sport.

You have the guys that exemplified aesthetics, symmetry, and flow, and then you had the guys that were just big. Some of these big guys had the aesthetics of a refrigerator. They didn’t look very good, their physiques were downright ugly, but they brought in tremendous amounts of size. Now I don’t want to throw shade at any particular competitor because that would go against the spirit of this article. I’m writing an article about a competitor that truly believes in good sportsmanship and never makes it personal. I don’t care where William places, he never makes it personal. But I am not a fan of sheer size. There needs to be aesthetics and symmetry – otherwise it’s not bodybuilding in my opinion. That said, placing should never be personal.

It’s very very poor form for a competitor to hold it against another competitor if they place well at a show. If one guy does well and another guy doesn’t, that is something that’s decided at the judging table. William has never been a sore loser nor has he cried politics or anything remotely associated with whiner behavior. He works hard and he has the common sense to know when it’s time to take a break. That is something that he did back in 2023.

How many top-tier bodybuilders can you name that would take a full year off to give their body a break? That is almost unheard of in this sport. It’s so unheard of that there are guys that will literally train themselves and compete themselves into the grave. We have seen people die in this sport as young as 26 or 27 which is the age Dallas McCarver passed. We have also seen older guys unfortunately pass away like Don Youngblood, who just honestly did not know when to pull it back given their age. But the reality of the matter is William Bonac has always been on the right side of common sense. He has always been on the right side of doing right by his physique and not pushing it to the limit.

That term pushing it to the limit has many different contexts. If we’re talking about hard work, then William absolutely has pushed it to the limit. But if we’re talking about pushing it to the limit where it’s no longer healthy and where it starts to jeopardize a competitor’s well-being, well that’s not something that William has ever done. He knows when to pull it back. He is somebody who has been able to do this sport for many years. And that’s important because this is not a race, rather, it’s a marathon.

So what happened after 2023 when William took that full year off? He came back in 2024 firing on all cylinders. He won some great contests and he also placed seventh at the Olympia. And what about 2025? Well the year is still young, but William has already managed to get a top five at the Arnold Classic and take fourth place at the Pittsburgh. Everybody is remarking about how great he looks despite being 42 years of age. But let’s pause on that for a moment.

Dexter Jackson was competing and was very competitive in his late 40s. The same with Tony Freeman. The same with Al Beckles. 42 years of age is not old by any stretch of the imagination. Especially when you factor in that William took a full year off. During that year he basically cleared out his system of all the powerful compounds. He also gave his body a much needed break. I believe that 2023 provided a much-needed reset for a competitor that is still very much in the running to win the Olympia. Nobody can tell me that at 100% William cannot beat the likes of Nick Walker, Hadi Choopan, or Derek Lunsford. He can beat Samson. He can beat anybody.

William Bonac is not competing with a bunch of injuries nor is he competing with any disabilities that would prevent him from training top notch. He is a competitor that has systematically been overlooked and even suggesting that he could win the New York Pro this weekend seems almost ridiculous to a lot of people. But at the same time what are William’s flaws? Does he not have a truly aesthetic, award-winning physique? Is anybody going to tell me that he doesn’t know how to get peeled to the bone? Is anybody going to tell me that he can’t pose round after round after round with the best of them? A lot of these guys, Nick included, cannot pose for the long haul. Maybe they’re not ready for it, maybe they didn’t prepare for it. I don’t know what the case is, but the reality of the matter is they’re not able to go the long distance.

I think that a lot of promoters and a lot of media outlets have succumbed to wanting clicks so badly that they have all but ignored a top contender for the New York Pro. What’s going to happen if it’s Nick and William down to the wire? How many of these outlets and how many of these pundits are going to have to wipe the egg off their face? They’re going to look like royal idiots, but that’s exactly why they call William The Conqueror. He’s going to come into New York under the radar and he’s going to present a physique unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I suspect that Pittsburgh was very good but I believe he probably kept the best for New York. Because politically there’s no way they were going to give him the win over Derek, but in New York there is no Derek! It’s just going to be William and Nick.

I mean some outlets are even putting Regan Grimes bigger than William. Some outlets are putting Sasan Heirati, a guy who has consistently placed second at three shows this year, more prominently than William. These are not bad competitors but my goodness they have never even dreamt of being top five at the Arnold Classic or the Mr Olympia. Just on that fact alone they should not be on a poster that omits William Bonac. Nonetheless that’s media hype and that’s promoters wanting to sell tickets. But the judges, they’re the ones who have the ultimate say. And the judges have always recognized when William has brought his best to the stage. I suspect that New York will not be any different.

So 5 years later here we are once again, here, at Iron Magazine writing an article about how William Bonac is being ignored. I’ll tell you something, bodybuilding may not be a lot of things, but one thing it seems to always be, is consistent. And time does not change anything. Whether it’s December 2020 or May 2025, William Bonac continues to be ignored, despite how hard he works and how much he brings it to the stage.

Do you think William Bonac can defeat Nick Walker at the 2025 New York Pro? I look forward to reading your feedback in the comments. As always, thank you for reading my article, here. Please be sure to copy and paste a link to this article on all your social media feeds. It is guaranteed to generate lively conversation.