With less than six weeks until the 2025 Mr. Olympia, anticipation for its return is heating up. On August 4, 2025, Milos Sarcev discussed Samson Dauda’s new level of conditioning while guest posing in Romania. Judge Terrick El Guindy also reflected on Dauda’s sneak-peek ahead of Olympia.
Dauda secured Mr. Olympia gold on his third attempt, defeating Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan in the finals last year. He has stayed busy and attempted to win a second Arnold Classic title in 2025. However, Dauda faced an all-time best Lunsford and left Ohio as the runner-up.
Despite the setback, Dauda has no intention of letting his Olympia title go quietly. He’s incorporated superset training to bring out new details in his physique. And judging by his latest guest posing, the Nigerian native is on track to leave Sin City with his hand raised.
Milos Sarcev, Terrick El Guindy Talk Samson Dauda’s Conditioning Ahead of 2025 Mr. Olympia: “How Do You Beat That?”
In the YouTube video, Sarcev confirmed that Dauda brought the best conditioning of his career during his latest guest posing.
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“Derek, Samson, Nick, and Hadi all bring different things onstage,” shares Sarcev. “As you guys know, I coached him for like 13 different shows, and this is by far the best condition six weeks out. They are doing their job. It’s the best he’s ever looked.”
He deemed Dauda’s chest the best in the business and said his back has improved leaps and bounds.
“I think he has the best chest in the business. The thickness, fullness, and completeness all the way down. And his back has improved tremendously. We are not putting him in the top three list for back double biceps but how can you beat this? Complete head-to-toe.”
Although there’s speculation, Sarcev wasn’t convinced that Dauda had used GLP-1 drugs like Retatrutide to shred down.
“That would suppress his appetite, not make him leaner. He could lose some muscle. They are saying he looks a little bit smaller, but he’s not catabolic whatsoever; this is just lean and somewhat flat-ish. I don’t know much about it [Retatrutide], I listen, I read, I don’t want to be one
“If you are not eating and suppressing your appetite, that’s anti-bodybuilding,” Sarcev shared.
El Guindy also gave Dauda props for his newfound conditioning:
“He is very conditioned for six weeks out. He is very conditioned for about six weeks out. He’s more conditioned than previous years, and yes, this is one of the things that a lot of other competitors, a lot of people in the media, said, Samson needs to be more conditioned. It looks like he is responding.”
He explained that conditioning is crucial for Dauda because it takes away a key advantage held by Lunsford and Choopan.
“The conditioning is key. It’s one of the competitive advantages that guys like Derek and Hadi had against him. If he is conditioned, it’s a big problem for them. Why? He not only takes the competitive advantage of Hadi and Derek, which is the conditioning, but he actually expands on his own competitive advantage, which is his structure,” he said.
Beyond that, El Guindy highlights that more condition on Dauda equals better structure.
“The more conditioned Samson Dauda is, the better his structure looks,” he shared. “He’ll have a smaller waist and look even bigger on top and on the bottom.”
With the show set to light up Vegas soon, Jay Cutler offered his predictions. While he didn’t name them in a particular order, the former four-time Mr. Olympia sees Dauda, Choopan, Walker, and Lunsford as the top threats to win the Sandow trophy.
Dauda’s conditioning looks better than ever, but will it affect how much size he can display at the Olympia? Don’t miss the sport’s biggest event of the year from October 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Watch the full videos from the IFBB AMA and OlympiaTV YouTube channels below:
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