Heath knows who he expects to win the subsequent Olympia. He also knows how he might return to competition.
Few bodybuilders will ever have the ability to match Phil Heath’s competitive rap sheet. With seven consecutive Mr. Olympia titles from 2011-2017, only Arnold Schwarzenegger (seven Olympia wins) and Ronnie Coleman and Lee Haney (eight Olympia wins each) are on par with the trendy titan. Such a reality potentially makes Heath’s prognostication for the 2023 Mr. Olympia all of the more intriguing.
On Apr. 11, 2023, Heath appeared in a YouTube interview with The Voice of Bodybuilding, Bob Cicherillo, to debate the upcoming Olympia. In the method, Heath named a few of his top contenders for the title, including defending champion Hadi Choopan. The living legend even touched upon what it will take for him to return to the stage in posing trunks.
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Before breaking down who he thinks could topple Choopan, Heath gave the athlete a wholehearted endorsement for a repeat title. It’s Choopan’s background, along with his elite fitness, that Heath thinks provides the champion with bodybuilder an edge over his peers.
“I believe Hadi’s [Choopan] a repeat champion,” Heath said. “… You bought to take a look at someone’s origin. Champions have a selected origin of how they came in the primary place. You’re thinking that of somebody that has grown up in that environment in Iran. All the pieces matters. This thing means all the things to him and his country. There’s plenty of expectations, but he’s met those expectations in a really quick time period. He’s never really been off.”
As for who could unseat Choopan, Heath likes the potential of Derek Lunsford and Nick Walker. Perhaps not by coincidence, Lunsford was the 2022 Olympia runner-up after transitioning from the 212 class, while Walker finished in third place.
For various reasons, this trio appears to be bodybuilding’s top Cerberus monster of sorts.
“It’s a three-headed monster at this point,” Heath explained. “It’s either Derek [Lunsford] and I could make a case for Nick [Walker]. Nick is an anomaly, he’s very different … It’s going to cancel out plenty of guys due to the density and muscle maturity, because those two [Choopan and Walker] won’t be out-conditioned. The cool thing about Derek [Lunsford] is, now he’s comfortable in that [Men’s] Open body. He’s a tough employee, got support system, coach.”
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As for his own personal competitive prospects, Heath still has no forthcoming plans to return to a bodybuilding stage. The 43-year-old icon never officially retired but hasn’t competed in nearly three years. His last competitive appearance on-stage was a third-place finish on the 2020 Mr. Olympia, when Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay captured his first title.
Heath told Cicherillo that, at the suitable lucrative price for considered one of the game’s biggest names, he might well return to compete soon enough.
“I produce plenty of numbers,” Heath clarified. “I do know my value, it’s value way greater than $100,000 [Heath’s purse for third place at the 2020 Olympia] … There’s definitely a number, they [Olympia organizers] have to come back up. It will need to make sense … We might need to have a gathering of the minds and truly figure it out.”
Featured image: @arnoldsports on Instagram