i just seen a video of the pro belly dancing Lol, i tried to think of some way to post that without sounding ghey, but its impossible!
KERLEY- Yeah yeah,… I know, my buddy John, who I trained and prepped for his own shows was kind enough to post a clip on Facebook from when we were goofing around the night before last Saturday’s contest (bastard! -lol). And to think that this is how he repays my help, the guy has walked away with 3 trophies in 3 weeks!
LANKY- Oh yeah, because that’s the reason I won,… all 7 judges felt it would be a nice birthday gesture 
STEELYD- Very funny bro,… but an old pic,… wait’ll you see the newer ones, when I watch the video of me hitting the same shot, I look about 15 lbs thicker!
MARAUDERMEAT- The way most federations work, is that at a contest, it can either be a pro-qualifier, or a ‘super’, or ‘regional’ pro qualifier. In a regular pro qualifier, only the Overall winner (out of the 5 open weight class winners) will receive a pro card. At one of the other types, you are only required to win your weight class, but the competition is usually that much steeper.
The show I just won was a regional qualifier, so technically I won my pro card just by winning the Open Middleweights,… but then I really cemented the deal by beating the other pro-card winners from each weight class! 
So now, if I want, I can enter shows that have ‘pro divisions’. There are no more weight classes, but everyone on stage is certainly a much higher caliber of competition than you would find at a typical amateur show. There aren’t really too many natural pro titles per say,… I mean, sure you hear of some of the larger pro shows (ie. the WNBF Worlds every Fall in NYC), but with the several different natural federations out there, even though there is money to be made winning a pro show, it’s not enough for people to go after this as a career like some of the IFBB guys do.
I guess that’s why the goal for natural competitive BBers is to get the card itself. After that, it just seems to be a respect thing, saying that you’re a natural pro.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
KERLEY- Yeah yeah,… I know, my buddy John, who I trained and prepped for his own shows was kind enough to post a clip on Facebook from when we were goofing around the night before last Saturday’s contest (bastard! -lol). And to think that this is how he repays my help, the guy has walked away with 3 trophies in 3 weeks!
LANKY- Oh yeah, because that’s the reason I won,… all 7 judges felt it would be a nice birthday gesture
STEELYD- Very funny bro,… but an old pic,… wait’ll you see the newer ones, when I watch the video of me hitting the same shot, I look about 15 lbs thicker!
MARAUDERMEAT- The way most federations work, is that at a contest, it can either be a pro-qualifier, or a ‘super’, or ‘regional’ pro qualifier. In a regular pro qualifier, only the Overall winner (out of the 5 open weight class winners) will receive a pro card. At one of the other types, you are only required to win your weight class, but the competition is usually that much steeper.
The show I just won was a regional qualifier, so technically I won my pro card just by winning the Open Middleweights,… but then I really cemented the deal by beating the other pro-card winners from each weight class!
So now, if I want, I can enter shows that have ‘pro divisions’. There are no more weight classes, but everyone on stage is certainly a much higher caliber of competition than you would find at a typical amateur show. There aren’t really too many natural pro titles per say,… I mean, sure you hear of some of the larger pro shows (ie. the WNBF Worlds every Fall in NYC), but with the several different natural federations out there, even though there is money to be made winning a pro show, it’s not enough for people to go after this as a career like some of the IFBB guys do.
I guess that’s why the goal for natural competitive BBers is to get the card itself. After that, it just seems to be a respect thing, saying that you’re a natural pro.
S
[/quote]
awesome!!! thanks for taking the time to give me an explaination.
keep up the great work. i remember all those horrible dieting down experiences…not fun and not many people have the balls to do it. i remember it having such an emotional impact feeling like i was wasting away as i dieted down and losing strength.
mad respect for walking the walk hoss!!!
Great work, Mighty.
( I’ll be calling you that from now on, since you are Pro if you don’t mind ).
Glad you posted this, because it tells ignorant people that one can get a Pro Card ( that is look fucking awesome ) and never ‘use.’
Looking forward to more input from you on this site, after all you are a professional right? 
This is also the trump card in any “debate”.
Guy - “Stu, you’re fucking wrong.”
Stu - “I’m a pro bodybuilder. Case closed. Now STFU and make me a sambo.”
congrats Stu!! ive been following all your stuff and its a great read, learning and inspirational i wish you the best as you continue on. Also happy birthday! one more point i loved hearing all your friends yelling out during the video “thats a thick back” awesome.
Good job Stu, what are your options after this? I am pretty naive about the bodybuilding circuit but is it possible that you could scrape a living from this, get sponsorships etc?
I’m glad for you Stu. You’re one of my favorite contributors here (mostly because your statements are genuine and you lack the dickbreath/meathead syndrome that seems to be every so common anymore) Good job.
Congratulations, Stu! I’m more of a “recent” fan and I wish you all the best.
Yates would be proud buddy… Damn fine job.
Inspiring journey!
Congrats!
nice work there!
Sorry I’m late to the party, but CONGRATULATIONS!
Well done
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
This is also the trump card in any “debate”.
Guy - “Stu, you’re fucking wrong.”
Stu - “I’m a pro bodybuilder. Case closed. Now STFU and make me a sambo.”
[/quote]
LMAO I’m always telling my best friend’s girlfriend to go and “make me a pie” when she gets ‘uppity’.
I’d like to think I already received a good deal of respect before the win, but I guess it does sort of raise my ‘stock’ so to speak.
S
Awesome man, very inspiring.
Don’t leave us here on T-Nation!
CONGRATS!!!
_Mel
LOL, believe me, I’m not going anywhere,… I consider this forum my little cyberspace based home away from home
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
LOL, believe me, I’m not going anywhere,… I consider this forum my little cyberspace based home away from home
S[/quote]
next step pop tart flavored protein powder!
Awesome!! Congrats Stu, now you can make every mofo who knows a friend that knows a friend that knows a pro STFU…
This is the prejudging and finals for the Open Middleweights. I think my girlfriend was able to zoom in more, so you can really see the conditioning a little bit better than the video from the overall judging. There were supposed to be two other entrants into the class, but one knew he was going to be in last place after his callouts during an earlier division (novice I think), and he bolted. Not sure what happened to the other guy.
S
good work stu… your posing was the best and you’re back was miles ahead of both of the other competitors… It was blatantly obvious. Congrats
.greg.