The 2025 Mr. Olympia is approaching in a few months, leading Samir Bannout to take a closer look at the reigning champion. In a YouTube video aired on July 2, 2025, he urged Samson Dauda to improve his posing and conditioning.
In 2024, Samson Dauda became the 19th athlete to earn the Sandow trophy. He defeated Open threats Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan to secure the title. While most Olympia champions sit out until their title defense, Dauda took a different route.
He competed at the 2025 Arnold Classic, where a $500,000 cash prize was fought for. Ultimately, he narrowly lost to Lunsford, setting the table for an intense rematch in October. Though if Dauda hopes to emerge victorious, he’ll have a stacked lineup to deal with beyond just Choopan and Lunsford.
Samir Bannout Talks Posing, Says If Samson Dauda Brings ’24-Karat’ Condition, It’s Going to be Really Difficult for Anyone to Touch Him’
In the video, Bannout emphasized that posing is a performing art that athletes today should take more seriously.
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“We have to make sure that posing is a performing art, it’s not a monkey business, seriously. We want bodybuilding to be better. We love this game,” shared Bannout. “We want to do our best to make this sport respected by the whole world.”
Shawn Ray chimed in and argued that Dauda is among the best posers in the IFBB Pro League:
“Samson Dauda is big, symmetrical, and he can pose. He needs work on his posing but right now, he’s one of the number one posers in Open Bodybuilding and he would never had a stood a chance in the 80s and 90s with all the guys we had putting an emphasis on their posing. We don’t want to overreward size too much and get away from the beauty and art,” adds Ray.
In Bannout’s opinion, Dauda needs more conditioning, and it’ll be ‘really difficult for anyone to touch him.’
“Samson is massive, Samson has got an unbelievable shoulder-to-waist ratio. He’s missing nothing. For me personally, I love the way his body is put together.
What is he lagging? I would like to see Samson, I would give him 21-carat gold, I want him to go to 24K. If Samson gets that quality, it’s going to be really difficult for anyone to touch him.”
Ray doesn’t want to see mass monsters overly awarded in the Open due to size, suggesting that the sum of all factors in a given physique should dictate who wins.
“There’s room for you to find what you like and what you enjoy. I don’t knock the mass monsters. What I don’t like is a guy getting overrewarded simply because he’s big. Like Samir, bodybuilding is more than just size.
So I don’t like it when it’s a lopsided affair where the guy is winning because he’s so big as opposed to the smaller guy, like a Makkawy or a Ruffin,” explains Shawn Ray. “They have more attributes that are in the positive column than just bulky chunky mass for the sake of mass.”
Bannout isn’t the only top-tier bodybuilding veteran to give his take on the Olympia. For Dennis James, a 1990s standout, he believes Lunsford could clinch a second title, but says it depends on Dauda’s condition. He stressed that fans have yet to see Dauda peak at 100%.
With more detail and condition, Bannout sees Dauda finding more success onstage at the Olympia. The 2025 Mr. Olympia is set for October 9-12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Watch the full video from the OlympiaTV YouTube channel below:
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