The 2025 Mr. Olympia results are still sending shockwaves through the sport. On Oct. 17, Samir Bannout discussed how Derek Lunsford’s size played into his victory. He also reflected on Samson Dauda’s drop to fourth place and said he came into the contest at 60 percent.
The 2025 Olympia finals turned into a three-man war between Derek Lunsford, Hadi Choopan, and Andrew Jacked. After numerous callouts, Lunsford and Choopan battled for gold, just as they did back at the 2023 Olympia.
With bigger legs and his usual dominant back poses, Lunsford pulled ahead to become a two-time champion. The Men’s Open is helmed by a new titleholder, leading Bannout to give his assessment of the results, revealing who shined and who fell short onstage.
Samir Bannout Talks ‘60%’ Samson Dauda and Derek Lunsford’s Triumph Over Hadi Choopan at 2025 Mr. Olympia
In the video, Bannout pointed to Choopan lacking leg mass, which contributed to his loss against Lunsford. He had Choopan ahead in the finals and emphasized that the judging ‘system is not rigged.’
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“According to Hany, nothing was wrong with his legs [Choopan]. I noticed with his leg size, and Tyler Manion mentioned that.
The legs are slightly less in mass than usual,” said Bannout. “That tells you that the system is not rigged [if Choopan was ahead in the finals].
Had Choopan brought his finals look to prejudging, Bannout believes he would have won back the title.
“If they went by the prejudging, Derek was looking really good in the prejudging. He kind of faded. He didn’t look as good on day two. Really, Hadi came in much sharper and if that was the prejudging, I think Hadi would have won the Mr. Olympia.”
“It would be fair probably, I had the nod for Hadi. Hadi looked fantastic that night but I guess maybe he was losing by more points in the a.m. and the day before, so therefore, let’s not bullshit ourselves, Derek has a great body. He’s massive. He’s got the lines. He’s symmetrical.”
According to Bannout, Dauda should have pursued a fuller look instead of hyper-focusing on condition.
“I just saw him loaded up, he looked like the winner today but that’s a little bit too late. He worked really hard with his wife and they really focused on coming in lighter and more ripped, but sometimes it doesn’t work like that. You’ve got to come in full 100 percent.”
“No [I don’t think he lost muscle]. I think he was lacking excessive glycogen, in my opinion,” he shared. “He could have been three to four pounds fuller.”
He believes Dauda was only at 60 percent at the 2025 Mr. Olympia.
“That was 60 percent of Samson, who we saw that day.”
Looking ahead, Bannout suspects Dauda will be back better than ever.
“I’ll tell you one thing: if he comped in Prague, there’s a show in Prague in about seven or eight days, he’ll go there and load up properly, it’ll be a walk in the park for him. I’m telling you, he’s that good. Samson is extremely good.”
“We all learn as we go. He’s young. I’m pretty sure he’s going to come back with a vengeance. He’ll be better than ever again. So, the next year’s Mr. Olympia is going to be even crazier.”
He added that Dauda needs to leverage glycogen to his advantage to present a fuller look in the future.
“People think if you load for five or six days you’re going to get fat, you can get fat when you load, but you just have to do it right.
You have to understand the glycemic index, electrolyte management, it’s do-able. I think he can put on 10 pounds in pure glycogen reserves and more fluid in the cells and it’s going to look better and probably bigger than he was the year before. He was too depleted.”
The 2025 Olympia has bodybuilding veterans talking. Recently, Lee Haney underscored that the Olympia results were confusing, prompting him to call for two classes in the Men’s Open to accommodate shorter and taller bodybuilders.
Bannout stressed that the Olympia results were close, but thought Lunsford gained too much ground in prejudging for Choopan to catch up. Fans are already anticipating their rematch for next year.
Watch the full video from the Old School Labs YouTube channel below:
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