A fierce bodybuilding rivalry ended with a passing of the torch, and the 6-time Mr. Olympia Classic physique winner, CBum, tells a distinctive story.

After winning the Mr. Olympia Classic Physique from 2019 to 2024, Chris Bumstead handed over the title to Ramon Dino in 2025. According to Chris Bumstead, Ramon Dino inspired him to become a dominant figure in the bodybuilding world.

During an interview at the Dubai Muscle Show, Chris Bumstead was asked to describe his feelings when he passed the “torch to Ramon Dino”.

In response, he said, “I think there’s a deep understanding you have with someone that doesn’t need to be communicated through words. When you’ve done something similar…. there’s an unspoken respect. We were friends, but also when we were on that stage. It was like, I’m going to kick your a***, and he’s like, I’m going to kick your a***. We would never say anything out loud. We were smiling, kind to each other, but mentally we were there to win”.

For Chris Bumstead, it was their actions, not words, that defined their relationship. He said, “Ramon thanked me in his own way for what I was able to do for the sport, and we both mutually understood that because we were working so hard, we made ourselves better bodybuilders. I was better because of him, and he was better because of me”.

For him, the mutual respect for how they push each other to grow matters the most: “because without competition it’s harder to keep pushing yourself”.

Talking about mutual respect and relationships, Chris Bumstead also shed light on self-worth and the beauty of a real relationship.

Chris Bumstead on building a real relationship

When the host asked him what drove him, Chris Bumstead simply said he is still “unrevealing myself of what really drove” him to keep going. He also said that you can win as many titles as you want.

However, “That void you might have in yourself of self-worth is not filled at all by that. You can continue to get more wins, more money, more success, and more things, but it doesn’t keep getting better”.

He added, “The beauty I started to learn was building a real relationship with my wife, discovering who I was, and feeling the emotions, the highs and the lows, and being able to experience more of that in life”.

He also admitted that he “began to create a version of love for myself that didn’t come from my performance and being able to separate the two from bodybuilding. That was kind of the biggest journey I was on throughout it. What started as seeking external validation through bodybuilding and through my body was the exact thing that allowed me to realize it wasn’t what I needed to feel full, so I could begin to look elsewhere, to look inside, and to grow from that”.

So, what are your thoughts on Chris Bumstead’s narrative?

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Oajaswini Prabhu