Coaching drama around Nick Walker continues to heat up following the 2025 Mr. Olympia. On Oct. 30, he discussed parting ways with his former coach Kyle Wilkes after mistiming his peak and dropping to sixth place in Vegas.
Walker lacked his usual conditioning and muscle fullness onstage at the Olympia. In the event’s aftermath, his coach, Wilkes, was confident they could right the ship, but never got the opportunity. Wilkes opened up on a ‘cold’ phone call with Walker and shared that they had stopped working together. He also mentioned that Walker did not like his look at the Pittsburgh Pro, where he took second place behind Derek Lunsford.
In response, “The Mutant” explained why it wasn’t his favorite package. Walker was adamant that his 2021 Arnold Classic and 2022 Mr. Olympia looks were his all-time best. Clearing the air, he spoke on the Bro Chat podcast with Fouad Abiad about his coaching situation.
Nick Walker Responds to Ex-Coach Kyle Wilkes’ Video, Calls It ‘Degrading’ and ‘Bullshit’
In the video, Walker shared that Wilkes’ methods didn’t align with his goals.
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“I’m going to be the bigger person, again, for the 1000th time in my life, and I’m just going to say I just did not like the way his methods were. It didn’t align with what I do, and it was just best that I started to do my own thing.”
He thought Wilkes’ video explaining the predicament was disrespectful, degrading ‘bullshit.’
“I’ll be professional: I thought his video was a little on the degrading side,” said Walker. “I just think he did it in a very disrespectful, degrading way that I would never do to somebody. I think a lot of it to be transparent was bullshit.”
With his loyalty being questioned, Walker said he’d never leave a coach who is fully invested in his bodybuilding career.
“I will never leave a coach that I feel went fully all the way in and was fully aware and fully paid attention and missed the mark a little bit. Cool, let’s fix it. In my opinion, that’s not what happened. That’s why this situation occurred.”
In light of Walker’s lackluster Olympia showing, bodybuilding veterans have offered him advice. Recently, Shawn Ray urged Walker to target the last two qualifiers of the 2026 bodybuilding season. He sees this as a better route for Walker than competing at the upcoming Arnold Classic.
There are whispers that Walker might jump into the Arnold Classic. If he does, he’ll have a shot at taking home the massive $750,000 winner’s purse in Ohio.
Watch the full video from the Fouad Abiad Media YouTube channel below:
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