Hadi Choopan is channeling a bodybuilding legend. The 2022 Mr. Olympia winner recently posted a photo striking a pose that immediately brought fans back to Ronnie Coleman's classic era. The tribute highlights the mutual respect between two generations of champions.

Although Choopan did not mention Ronnie, that post did not go unnoticed by the bodybuilding world. Whoisthebestbb posted a collage of Coleman and Choopan, in which it is clearly seen that Choopan's post mirrored Coleman's.

Whoisthebestbb captioned the post with, “I understood the reference to Hadi Choopan in this pose. A tribute to the legend @ronniecoleman8.” And the similarity was clear. Choopan posed just as Coleman once did.

Though Hadi, the 2022 Mr. Olympia, has to achieve a lot more before matching the 8-time Mr. Olympia’s dominance, he has always been respectful of Coleman.

Once, during an interview, he was asked to compare Coleman and Phil Heath. In response, Choopan said, “Well, that’s a tough one. Ronnie and Phil are bodybuilding legends. Both had incredible genetics and training. It’s hard to say who is better between the best. They were both champs in their eras. As fans, we appreciate both. Each was a king of their time.”

The respect is mutual, as Coleman has also praised Choopan multiple times.

Ronnie Coleman Praised Hadi Choopan

After winning the 2022 Mr. Olympia, Choopan got Coleman’s attention.

The legendary bodybuilder, on his YouTube channel, posted, “I’ve seen my boy Hadi Choopan been doing a lot of work over the years and finally got himself a title. I thought it would only be appropriate if I did some reaction videos to some of his training, so let’s get into this.”

During his reaction, Coleman said, “Get them arms as big as possible. That’s a big-armed dude. Let’s go, Hadi. Let’s do this. What you got going on? Just playing around in the gym right now. Big, thick chest. big, thick arms. lifting that light weight baby, like, it ain’t nothing.”

Even before the 2025 Mr. Olympia, he revealed his top 10 rankings, with Hadi Choopan in the 1st position. While that didn't materialize, we could see a first-place finish at the 2026 Arnold Classic. What do you think?

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar