My buddy did this for a while. He was always sending me some of the kids names and they were WILD.
I would also guess there has been an explosion in the quantity of pro cards because of several newish divisions. They need people to compete initially. It will get harder as those divisions fill up (perhaps they are at this point now), and the competition figures out exactly what the judges are looking for (it seems that they are getting there with classic in that they want the Chris Bumstead look).
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As Stu and I have mentioned several times here, many IFBB pros wouldn’t be pros in the 90s and early 2000s. You can even find videos and pictures of men in the NPC back in the day who would crush much of the current IFBB.
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See here for example.
Hell i remember back in the day there was only like 2 NPC shows that got one a pro card in the US if memory serves . One was class winner the other was over all winner. But my memory might be faulty sine I’m going back 30 years.
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Point taken although I feel the IFFB & NPC has no worries about this. Most NPC promoters would be out of business at this point if not for the 14 classes of Men’s Physique and Women’s Bikini.
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lol, oh boy, what a great topic!
I remember going to Bev’s in in 2000-2010’s, when Physique was new, and while I had won a few shows, I knew No “real” IFBB Pros were sweating seeing me in the mirror. Then I’d see a few of the New Physique Pros strutting around, looking maybe a buck fifty and wearing custom training belts that said “IFBB Pro” on them. At that moment, I knew something was heading in the wrong direction with the sport I loved.
And different categories aside, (remember that every girl on social media “chasing” their pro card has a good chance, with the A, B, C, D, E and F classes in every single division!) it’s true that it used to be damn difficult to actually win an IFBB Pro card.
Guys who were “Pros” in the 90’s but still couldn’t crack the top 6 at the Olympia would smoke most of today’s top pros. Remember Mike Mattarazzo? Mike Francious? (Damn I was a fan of Francious!), those guys never came close to the top tier at an Olympia!
S
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Didn’t you compete in basically open bodybuilding though? I thought Physique competitors were supposed to be smaller than the open class guys.
Whether that’s a good thing or not is another discussion but just saying them being smaller is kind of the point or they’d be in a different class. Or is your point that the different classes bring the standard of what an IFBB Pro is down?
I did compete in Open Bodybuilding, but only in tested shows. I knew that I wasn’t going to start using PEDs just to enter NPC shows, it wasn’t worth rolling the dice to me.
I still always respected the NPC/IFBB, and followed the sport as a fan. So when I would hear “IFBB Pro”, I always had an image in my mind of an uber-impressive physique that was unattainable for 99% of the population, not some guy who looked like he was on the high school Volleyball team, but got a fake tan and some board shorts.
Obviously the expected size for MPD has increased over the years, but to me (to ME, and I"m sure plenty other fans of BBing), a Men’s physique “IFBB Pro” is not the same level of jaw dropping impressiveness of bodybuilding “IFBB Pro.”
S
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I’d agree with this. Open is where the monsters are going to be, but I’ll also throw the classic and 212 categories into what I think of as an IFBB Pro.
I’ll admit I didn’t follow pro bodybuilding for a long time, mainly because I couldn’t relate to what was on stage, but since I’ve been listening to Fouad’s podcast and the It’s Just Bodybuilding Podcasts, which both consist mainly of IFBB Pros I’ve gained a whole new respect for it. One thing I’ve heard mentioned is someone winning their pro card at around 230 lbs, but not doing a pro show right away, because they realized to compete in the open, they’d need to get up to 260 first. Regardless, I think anyone who’s 230 in competition condition is going to have a really impressive physique (I think Chris Bumstead’s around 225) and I have zero issue with them calling themselves a pro and I’d definitely listen to what they have to say.
MPD’s a different story though.
Many Pros of the past were actually 220 to 240 at average height and looked better than many of the 260-plus pound lugs of today.
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