The 2024 Mr. Olympia contest delivered history across all 11 bodybuilding divisions, prompting IFBB Pro League Vice President Tyler Manion to break down the headliner. In a recent YouTube video shared on October 17, 2024, Manion revealed that Dauda defeated Choopan five poses to three and explained that Derek Lunsford’s downsized legs contributed to his third-place finish.
Las Vegas, Nevada saw Samson Dauda walk away victorious, showcasing dramatic improvements to his back, arms, chest, and shoulders. He defeated Hadi Choopan in the finals while former titleholder, Derek Lunsford, shockingly dropped to third place. To shed some light on the historic results, Manion examined eight mandatory poses Open contenders must execute on stage.
Tyler Manion Breaks Down 2024 Mr. Olympia Samson Dauda vs Hadi Choopan Pose by Pose
Front double biceps – Samson Dauda Wins
The front double biceps pose was one of the closest in the competition. Manion revealed that Dauda bringing up his biceps and triceps worked to his advantage.
“Samson and Hadi both have very very strong front double bicep poses. For me, Samson’s front double has improved show to show and year over year. His arms have come up considerably both biceps and triceps. His whole inner arm is very good now in my opinion,” said Tyler Manion.
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He mentioned that Dauda’s legs and quads were the best of the Men’s Open, which also played a role in his success.
“His waist control and ab control was very good at this show. Then you move into the lower body and Samson obviously has some of the best legs and best quads in the Open division. Very good overall balance with this pose. The one thing I always said about Samson in this pose, is yes, could his lats be a little bit more dramatic? Could you have a little bit more of a taper? Yes. But I think that’s increased dramatically.”
While Choopan presented a solid front double biceps, Manion pointed out that his legs looked downsized.
“Hadi also has a very good front double biceps. Solid arms into a very pronounced V-taper and to a nice small waist.
Hadi always has great legs from the front that are very conditioned. However, for me at this show, I feel like his legs overall not just in this pose, were a little bit downsized.”
Front lat spread – Samson Dauda Wins
This was Choopan’s weakest pose according to Tyler Manion. Thanks to Dauda’s roundness and chest thickness, he won this shot.
“For me, this is Hadi’s weakest pose. As you see here, his waist obviously looks wider in this pose compared to his front double biceps pose,” says Manion. “He still needs more thickness to the chest. He has a detailed chest but needs more thickness to the chest. The overall roundness to his outer arms and shoulders is very good but when you compare it to someone like Samson you see the difference here.”
“Samson has very very round and thick and full outer arms and shoulders. His chest is extremely thick. You see striation and detail in his chest. This pose, in the past couple of shows, you could see he was having a problem with his midsection, it would be a little bit distended, here both Friday and Saturday, it was not at all.”
Side Chest – Samson Dauda Wins
Again, Choopan’s leg size worked against him during the side chest pose nor was his chest as detailed as years in the past.
“He [Hadi Choopan] needed more size to his legs from the side. Even at his best, which in my opinion, was the Arnold Classic this year, the Arnold Classic US, you could still see he could still use a little bit more of that thickness to the side leg.”
“His overall conditioning which is Hadi’s trademark is the striations through his chest and obviously the very very detailed midsection. For me, we saw that Hadi’s chest was not as detailed this time around, both on Friday and on Saturday.”
Manion revealed that Dauda was at his all-time best and the side chest was his strongest pose.
“He was going up against an all-time best Samson. It’s not the front lat spread it’s the side chest for Samson’s strongest pose. Arms and shoulders very full very big, very round. Chest, extremely full. Also, seeing detail and striations through it.”
Back Double Biceps – Samson Dauda Wins
Having brought up this pose significantly, Dauda showed improvements to his back depth and thickness. This pose also showcased ‘The Nigerian Lion’s’ balance.
“Surprisingly, Samson brought this pose up a lot. You see from the back he has crazy hamstrings, they were separated, they were detailed. Samson is probably someone who is never going to get crazy separated glutes but you can still see the condition he was in even with the glutes here. The back of his arms and shoulders improved a lot.”
“He improved the taper and dramatically improved the depth and thickness of his back. Top to bottom balance, very very good for him,” Manion adds.
Manion revealed that Choopan wasn’t his ‘normal self,’ and appeared a little soft during this pose.
“With Hadi, this is where we saw that it wasn’t Hadi and his normal self. Normally, his back double biceps is very strong. It was probably his most improved pose from last year’s Olympia to the Arnold.
So it was a little bit surprising to see that from the back, we didn’t see the same as we saw on Samson. The roundness, separation, and fullness with the shoulders and arms and the back itself, he was actually a little bit soft.”
Back Lat Spread – Hadi Choopan Wins
The back lat spread was one of Choopan’s strongest shots.
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“The back lat spread is one of Hadi’s strongest poses. Even though his back looked softer than normal in his back double bicep, the amount of thickness that he really carries in his back shines through even when he’s not at his best in this pose.”
“Very wide lats, very thick, we still saw the details and the lines in the back here. Again, the lower body has been better but it was in shape, we could see the hamstrings, the leg width was solid.”
Although Dauda presented a stellar lower body during this pose, Manion mentioned that he needs to work on pulling his lats out to create more width.
“For Samson, lower body is in. Very big separated and it looked great. The back itself actually improved a lot. I thought he was very comparable with not only Hadi but also Derek as well in this pose.
Even when he was hitting this pose, to me, I still feel like he could pull those lats out just a little bit more. It’s the best he’s ever hit the pose and the best his back has ever looked.”
Side Triceps – Hadi Choopan Wins
Manion explained that Dauda made an error with his foot placement whereas Choopan’s ab detail shined during this comparison.
“Samson in the side triceps pose, I think was just doing himself a little bit of a disservice with his leg placement. He has crazy legs from the side. You want to show that size with the same placement that he has with the side chest. When you place your legs this way, you really take away that hamstring and the hamstring drop when you have it the way he does.”
“The side tricep is always a very strong pose for Hadi. Why? Because we see all the detail in his midsection. His chest is still striated, not as much as normal but we still see the detail there. The side leg shows off the condition. For him, it’s still very balanced, upper and lower body here.”
Abdominals and Thigh – Hadi Choopan Wins
Dauda improved his abdominals and thigh, but it wasn’t enough to stop Choopan from taking the win here. Manion declared Choopan’s abs and thigh as ‘the best in the IFBB Pro League.’
“Samson looked great this year with his ab and thigh. Again, like I said, he was having some trouble controlling the midsection at previous shows. Here he was not. The midsection was dialed in. The abs were clear. The lines were deep. He has great quads. Overall, he has a very nice v-taper flowing into that nice tight waist here.”
“Hadi, whose abs and thigh pose is the best in the IFBB Pro League. Hadi is still very strong, all the detail through his midsection, great taper, quads are still conditioned, they are still there.”
Most Muscular – Samson Dauda Wins
The size discrepancy told the story during the most muscular pose. Choopan has enjoyed success with this pose courtesy of his chest striations but Dauda’s fullness and silhouette were undeniable during the most muscular shot.
“Both hitting basically the same pose except Hadi hits his most muscular with his knuckles together, Samson grabs the wrist. Again, here, I think it was a pose that surprised me because normally Hadi is very very tough to beat in this pose because of the detail through his chest, because of the detail through the midsection. Basically, a lot of his strengths are on display in this pose.”
“Samson finally nailed his conditioning. Was he the hardest guy on stage? No. But again, the chest is bursting full we’re still seeing striations. The size and the roundness of the shoulders and arms. We see the detail and still the separation to his abs.”
He emphasized that the size difference swayed this shot in Dauda’s favor.
“Being as big and separated as it was, it’s the most muscular pose for a reason and this displayed how big Samson truly was at this show. You see the size difference between both of these guys.”
Final Tally — Samson Dauda Defeats Hadi Choopan 5 Poses to 3
Manion Discusses Derek Lunsford’s Third-Place Performance
As for Derek Lunsford, Tyler Manion admits he brought up his upper body but believes his quads got ‘dieted away.’
“It looks like his upper body definitely got bigger and it looks like he lost some of his leg size even from last year. If you look at comparison pictures of Derek’s legs from last year to this year I think you would see that some of the quads got dieted away.”
Overall, Manion stressed that Lunsford’s lack of leg volume made his physique look imbalanced.
“His side leg was not nearly as big and as impressive as it was last year and even from the back, where his hamstrings and conditioning is really shining through, that leg width wasn’t quite the same as it was the year prior.”
“I think that caused a pretty big imbalance between his upper and lower body,” adds Manion. “When we’re looking at him compared to the top two, that kind of put him out of the discussion.”
The bodybuilding community is still unpacking the 2024 Mr. Olympia results. In Nathan De Asha’s opinion, he thought Had Choopan deserved the victory. He also mentioned that had Nick Walker competed, ‘The Mutant’ would have been in title contention.
With only three points separating Dauda and Choopan on the scorecards, bodybuilding fans now have a clear idea of how the event was scored. Dauda won five poses to three and is your new 2024 Mr. Olympia champion.
Watch the full video from the NPC News Online YouTube channel:
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