The 2024 Arnold Classic is approaching, igniting discussions and debates about who will emerge victorious. In a recent The Menace podcast, Dennis James, Milos Sarcev, and Chris Cormier offered their top five predictions for the nearing show. In addition, Sarcev revealed new details about the nature and severity of Dauda’s hamstring injury.
The competitors list for the 2024 Arnold Classic was revealed in mid-January with a few surprises in tow. Most notably, former 2022 Mr. Olympia Hadi Choopan announced his entry, which will serve as the first Arnold Classic competition of his career. Having dropped his title to his teammate Derek Lunsford at 2023 Mr. Olympia in November, Choopan aims to get his hand raised in a show of redemption, not to mention the $300,000 first-place cash prize.
Aside from ‘The Persian Wolf,’ fans were taken aback by the entry of Rubiel ‘Neckzilla’ Mosquera, whose steady rise in the Open class started with a shocking third-place finish in his Pro debut at the 2023 EVLS Prague Pro. Even though Andrew Jacked pulled out of the event, there are plenty of star-worthy contenders making their way to the stage, such as Justin Rodriguez, Marcello De Angelis (Horse MD), Rafael Brandao, and James Hollingshead.
Milos Sarcev, Dennis James, Chris Cormier Reveal Their Picks for the 2024 Arnold Classic
Milos Sarcev’s Top 5
- Winner — Samson Dauda
- Second Place — Hadi Choopan
Third Place — Andrew Jacked (OUT)- Fourth Place — Horse MD
- Fifth Place — James Hollingshead
Dennis James’ Top 5
- Winner — Hadi Choopan
- Second Place — Samson Dauda
- Third Place — Rafael Brandao
Fourth Place — Andrew Jacked (OUT)- Fifth Place — James Hollingshead
Chris Cormier’s Top 5
- Winner — Hadi Choopan
- Second Place — Samson Dauda
- Third Place — Rubiel Mosquera
Fourth Place — Andrew Jacked (OUT)- Fifth Place — Horse MD
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Milos Sarcev Opens Up On Samson Dauda’s Recent Hamstring Injury
Milos Sarcev revealed that Samson Dauda injured his hamstring while performing standing leg curls and said the ordeal was ‘super painful.’
“It’s very good [the injury]. Because you guys were concerned and texted me about his injury right? I talked to him, yes, he popped the hamstring doing standing leg curl and I tore my hamstring once on a stiff legged deadlifts back in ’91 and second time the same thing but I was going stupid heavy. Isolated standing, and he heard the pop, and it was like super painful.”
After Dauda continued to push cardio post-injury, he decided it was best to give the hamstring some time to heal.
“I was talking to him this morning. He was doing cardio, walking on a treadmill. He was doing such a pace you know that when you push push push and your hamstring [it makes it worse]. Yeah, so he said he’s just backing off from the hamstring for another week.”
Despite the setback, Sarcev explained that Dauda’s attention has been solely focused on defending his Arnold Classic title.
“He’s completely fully into the prep. He wants to keep improving right? And he does believe he is going to repeat. He believes he has the tools,” added Milos Sarcev.
While Sarcev doesn’t believe Dauda can match the conditioning of Hadi Choopan, he believes shape will prevail in the end.
“Listen, he’s watching all of our podcasts and many podcasts they keep saying we need to tighten up condition, tighten up condition, right? So he is aware of all that stuff. He knows of course you can’t beat Hadi in condition department, you just have to be close enough that you can you know, stand on the stage and beat him maybe in other aspects.”
“Listen, it’s still bodybuilding. He is shapelier the bigger he got so I don’t think there is a danger like Bob Cicherillo was saying after last year’s Olympia, ‘Oh Samson doesn’t need to go to 300 pounds he can go down to 280 or whatever.’ Interestingly, you were there when Dorian Yates said he doesn’t think he’s big enough and that his upper body still needs to catch up to his lower. There are different views on that,” said Milos Sarcev.
These aren’t the only major voices of bodybuilding sharing their thoughts on the 2024 Arnold Classic. Former Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout also assessed his favorites on his Old School Labs podcast. According to Bannout, the obvious frontrunners were Jacked, Choopan, and Dauda. He believes if Dauda brings ‘onion skin’ conditioning, he could take out Choopan in Ohio.
Meanwhile, Dauda’s rival, Nick Walker, also gave his picks for the nearing competition. While he predicted Choopan to take the title from Dauda, he added that everyone is ‘beatable’ depending on the day.
Boasting some of the best names in the sport, the 2024 Arnold Classic promises to be an electrifying event, and best of all, Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the live stream on March 1-3 will be free of charge to fans around the world.
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