Bodybuilder Victor Martinez has stepped away from competing but continues to discuss the sport’s finer details. In the latest The Menace Podcast with Dennis James, Martinez took issue with 2023 Masters Olympia not revealing prize money and offered his top five predictions for the nearing Arnold Classic.
“Where’s the respect of trying to bring Masters without the respect to lure the Masters. What is this?” says Victor Rodriguez.
Victor Martinez on 2023 Masters Olympia: ‘Usually When They Try to Bring You to a Show, They Talk Money’
“I want to hear your guys’ opinions, you know. Usually, when they try to bring you to a show, they talk money. Where is the money? How much money are they offering? What is this? Are we doing this for a trophy? Like I keep saying, is it for a one-year membership to Planet Fitness?”“When they have all these guys scrambling, writing letters and all this to be somewhere… that’s why bodybuilders, that’s why we’re so left behind in the sports industry because we’re so hungry that we forget, how the hell are we going to eat?”
“The last time we had Masters they were throwing money on every poster. Had my ass come back. It [the [prize money] had my ass come back. I was like, ‘wait a minute, what?’ It was $250,000. Yes. Crazy money.Well, listen, I gotta say this though, at the end, and we didn’t find out until we got there and we had the athletes meeting, when Steve [Weinberger] said, ‘listen man, she ain’t got the money. She basically doesn’t have all the money,’ and he said, ‘anybody is okay if they want to get up and walk out and don’t compete, this would be fine. He basically told us that she doesn’t have all the money,” says Dennis James.
“Listen, listen man, for you know… for $250K like you said they offered last time, I’d put a kidney on the line for it. I got two you know. Still right. Still. Barely shit,” laughs Martinez. “You guys will know, you guys will know… I’ll put it out. Again, it’s all about everybody being comfortable.”
Martinez Breaks Down + Offers Top 5 Predictions for 2023 Arnold Classic
Find Victor Martinez’s Arnold Classic predictions below:
- Samson Dauda — Winner
- Nick Walker — Second Place
- Big Ramy — Third Place
- Shaun Clarida — Fourth Place
- Justin Rodriguez — Fifth Place
With two weeks until the Arnold Classic, James, Martinez, and Cormier examined some of the favorites. Cormier and James were unsure of what improvements Mamdouh ‘Big Ramy’ Elssbiay made since receiving an intravenous stem cell treatment.
“So what’s going on with Ramy man. He looks like he’s changing it up some with those stem cells,” asks Chris Cormier.“Hopefully it’s working. But I don’t know if stem cells work so fast. I didn’t know that. I don’t know [about his poses] I haven’t seen any updates, nothing,” Dennis James said.
“So far with him being more full without cutting his water, he looks good you know. You can see the back. But again, you know how it is. Nothing matters until three days out. You can break it or make it by then,” says Martinez. “”Ramy this is a do or die for him. Coming off that fifth place – two-time Mr. Olympia, he has a lot to do. He has to do basically a full 360 on this one. Who else. Derek pulled out for obvious reasons.”
“Nick looks like sometimes like he can be a little bit flat when he’s posing, sometimes he can be a little bit more fuller. He has a different look for either. Samson is coming along. He looks like he’s staying the course,” added Cormier.
“Nick – I mean I like everything I see about Nick, I would like to see him with a better quad sweep. I don’t know why. I don’t know if they came down, they just look a little bit – they look a little bit straight to me,” says Dennis James.
A number of bodybuilding veterans have announced their predictions for the show next month. As it stands, Dennis James and Johnnie Jackson predicted Big Ramy to win. Meanwhile, Milos Sarcev and Victor Martinez backed Samson Dauda with Chris Cormier picking Nick Walker.
RELATED: Victor Martinez Raises Money For Charity Doing Polar Bear Plunge
Fans and bodybuilders would love to see Victor Martinez return to the bodybuilding stage. He wouldn’t completely dismiss the 2023 Masters Olympia, but Martinez is waiting to see how much prize money is on the line.
Watch the full video below:
Catch full coverage of the 2023 Arnold Classic, including pre-judging, event recaps, analysis, and final and full results at our Arnold Classic coverage hub: FitnessVolt.com/arnold-classic
Published: 20 February, 2023 | 12:09 PM EDT
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