The 2026 Mr. Olympia results are still rippling through the bodybuilding industry. In a September 29 video, Jay Cutler and Milos Sarcev recapped Nick Walker’s historic victory in Las Vegas. They also gave their thoughts on Derek Lunsford and Samson Dauda’s performances.
To lay claim to his first Sandow trophy, Walker had to bounce back from painful setbacks. In 2025, he mistimed his peak and fell to sixth place at the Olympia, with some fans counting him out as a future title contender. He attempted to rebound at the 2026 Arnold Classic, but lost in a close battle against Andrew Jacked (Chinedu Andrew Obiekea).
With a new coach guiding preparations, Walker went all-in on the 2026 Tampa Pro. He won the event handily, giving him a momentum push before the ‘Super Bowl of Bodybuilding.’ That gave him the perfect warm-up, leading Walker to present his greatest look to date when it mattered most in Las Vegas.
Jay Cutler, Milos Sarcev Discuss Nick Walker’s 2026 Mr. Olympia Win
In the video, Sarcev ate his words and gave Walker credit for winning the Olympia deservingly.
“I never believed also that Nick could be Mr. Olympia, and deservingly he won,” said Sarcev. “You did. You called it. I can’t believe it.”
He argued that “The Mutant” won the event with size and width:
“He created so much width in his shoulders that the illusion was there. Now, he has much more size than anybody else. That’s kind of the case with Nick Walker. I said this already. Front relaxed is like the most impressive pose you can think of. He just stands there. He doesn’t even pose. His shoulders are this wide, shoulders, arms, chest, abs, everything.”
He called Walker the ‘king of mandatory’ poses and admitted that the results were shocking since Lunsford actually came to the contest improved.
“Derek Lunsford, winning two out of four Olympias that he entered, was also favored. We knew he was going to come improved, and he did come improved. If an Olympia champ comes improved, what do you expect? You expect him to win. But Nick all this year was coming rock hard, and that conditioning even actually improved. I think that he even improved the size. He was bigger and harder than normally. Waist control was immaculate.”
“He was flat stomach.com, Jesus,” shared Sarcev. “He’s king of mandatory poses. All the poses he hits, holy shit. I didn’t give him as much credit in the side triceps before and I saw him lose that pose, but then at the show, it’s like, with those chiseled abs, you bring abs into the side triceps picture.”
Sarcev believes Walker and Dauda were both at their best at the Olympia.
“I think so, by far [best Nick we’ve seen], Saturday night was best Samson we ever saw,” Sarcev added.
According to Jay Cutler, the outcome leaves Lunsford in a gray area. While he improved from last season, it wasn’t enough to stop Walker this year.
“Listen, I don’t judge for that reason but I think he must be kind of left questioning, what do I need to do? Because the guy improves, right? He was good last year I thought. We all kind of thought leading in that he was in the driver’s seat to take this. But we knew if Samson or Andrew showed up with the structure, it’s really hard to go against that.”
As for Dauda, Cutler emphasized that when he nails his peak, Walker doesn’t have the tools to beat him.
“What people need to realize is with the outcome, obviously Nick was the deserving winner. It just goes to show, if Samson comes in at a certain level, it’s impossible for someone like Nick to beat him if he’s on,” Cutler explained. “Samson is the most developed body on that stage.”
Despite picking up the biggest win of his career, it looks like Nick Walker will step back onstage soon. After revealing that he will pay off his parents’ debt with the Olympia prize money, he shared his plan to compete at the upcoming 2027 Arnold Classic, set for March 4-7 in Columbus, Ohio.
Cutler and Sarcev are adamant that Walker deserved to win the 2026 Mr. Olympia. With a new champion leading the division, it will be interesting to see how he represents the sport moving forward.
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