IFBB bodybuilding judge Terrick El Guindy has developed a seasoned eye for assessing physiques. In a recent Olympia TV appearance, El Gundy shared his assessment of the 2023 Arnold Classic results and laid out game plans for the top five finishers ahead of the next Mr. Olympia contest.
“Nick Walker is unbelievable on muscularity, and he’s probably the most consistent guy on conditioning in the last two or three years. What we need to solve here is symmetry and balance, okay,” shared El Guindy.
The 35th annual Arnold Sports Festival saw seven champions stake their claim as the best in the world. In the Men’s Open competition, the curtains closed with Samson Dauda winning his first Arnold Classic title. Meanwhile, Nick Walker fell short of his aspirations to become a two-time winner and Andrew Jacked secured third, after earning his Pro card at the Arnold Classic Amateur one year prior.
With a little time to digest the outcome, Samson Dauda’s coach, Milos Sarcev, gave his take on the recent victory. He emphasized that Dauda’s aesthetics, shape, and muscle thickness contributed to the win. While discussing the finals, Sarcev said Walker’s legs lost volume in Ohio compared to a few months ago at the 2022 Mr. Olympia show.
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Other veterans of the sport have taken issue with Samson Dauda winning with a perfect scorecard, like 1983 Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout. Specifically, Bannout thought Dauda lacked clarity in his back. He also said that Duada looked ‘flat and faded’ by the end of Friday’s prejudging rounds. Providing more clarity on the results, IFBB judge Terrick El Guindy took a closer look at the top five finishers of the event.
IFBB Judge Terrick El Guindy Examines Physiques of Top 5 Finishers from 2023 Arnold Classic
Shaun Clarida
Guindy thought Clarida presented his best look despite taking fifth place. He mentioned that muscularity prevented him from defeating some of the taller athletes.
“Now in fifth place, Shaun Clarida. Guys, this was the best Shaun Clarida I have ever seen. There was a lot of people saying, if he gains a little bit of size, he’s going to lose his lines. He didn’t. He looked even better than the Olympia. Shaun Clarida is unstoppable. I don’t think at the 212 anyone can challenge him at this point. But he’s going to lose on the muscularity around versus some of the big guys. But Shawn, bring that physique to the Olympia and it will be very hard to beat you.”
Big Ramy
According to El Guindy, Mamdouh ‘Big Ramy’ Elssbiay redeemed himself in Ohio under Chad Nicholls’ guidance. He’s optimistic about Ramy considering his ability to come back successfully from suspected injuries.
“Moving on to fourth place. Yes. He was vastly better. I want to give credit to Chad Nicholls, I did a live with him and Chris Cormier, and he said, ‘Terrick, he’s going to be better,’ and he was right. The legs were better. He opened up that back double biceps. Hey, there’s still some room for improvement but I think Big Ramy is shocking the world. A lot of times, we talked about Mr. Olympias getting hurt, it was done, they never got better. Big Ramy is getting better. I’m excited to see with a little bit of polishing, if he can go back to the winning circle at the Mr. Olympia.”
Andrew Jacked
El Guindy believes Andrew Jacked brought an impressively conditioned package but lacked the same fullness he brought to Olympia.
“Andrew Jacked. Yes. This guy is a human statue. A lot of people said, you need to be more conditioned, there’s a film of water, we need to be better. He came in and his conditioning was on point. Credit to Chris Aceto and Psycho Lewis, that was the best Andrew Jacked. My only thing with Andrew was possibly he lost a little bit of fullness, especially on the prejudging on the chest. And because he’s tall, he got a little streamlined, but his conditioning was on point and that’s a better formula than overly full at the Olympia. Now we need to bring the same conditioning and we need to have that fullness on top.”
Nick Walker
Looking back on the contest, El Guindy compared Walker and Samson’s battle to when Branch Warren and Dexter Jackson competed against each other.
“So, we talk about well, the waist is a bit wide, but forget about the waist. It’s the complete package. When you have a bodybuilder that has large clavicle bones, he makes the waist small. For Nick Walker right now, the key question is, if we can get the quads flairing up more,” Terrick Elguindy said.
“If he can just get his posing to make the waist small on that front double biceps and front lat spread, if he can just get his legs to be a little bit more wider, and that will make the waist a little bit smaller. Now, it’s a complete package, which takes a little bit away from the symmetry of a bodybuilder, and that’s where Samson Dauda got him.”
Samson Dauda
He believes Dauda’s victory was made possible due to his combination of mass, conditioning, and muscular detail.
“Now, a lot of people talk about his aesthetically pleasing lines, and he might just be the best lines in bodybuilding nowadays. Possibly better than Derek and Hadi but one thing that most people are missing on this argument is the fact that Samson Dauda is massive.
We are not talking about a 230-pound aesthetically pleasing guy, we are talking about a 285, 295-pound six-feet-tall aesthetically pleasing competitor. That is a lot of muscle with beautiful lines with an improved conditioning. Was his conditioning perfect, no, but it was better and that’s the goal for him. If he wants to win the Olympia, he’s got to have that conditioning that possibly Andrew Jacked and Nick Walker have.”
Before ending the discussion, El Guindy suggested Walker bring up his legs to avoid losing to Dauda in the future.
“If Nick Walker never ever wants to lose to Samson Dauda, get those legs bigger, pose more aesthetically pleasing in some poses, and you will be right there. This was a battle for the ages. This was Dexter Jackson versus Branch Warren, and just like the past, these guys are going to battle for years to come.”
Days ago, Nick Walker reacted to his second-place finish. He believes as a former Arnold Classic winner, ‘you gotta take out the champ,’ and he doesn’t believe Dauda accomplished that. Four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler has gone on record to say he thought ‘The Mutant’ could have won in Ohio as well.
As a result of Walker’s second-place finish, he’s had to urge fans to keep talks about the contest respectful. Samson Dauda qualified for 2023 Mr. Olympia after earning gold and will rematch Walker later this year at the Mr. Olympia contest in November.
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