6-time Mr. Olympia winner Dorian Yates has always been vocal about his thoughts. His comments about modern-day bodybuilders not only gained attention from 2020 IFBB Mr. Olympia winner Derek Lunsford but also forced 4-time Mr. Olympia winner Jay Cutler to dive in.

In a clip shared by the Instagram handle @whoisthebest on December 14, Yates compared bodybuilding legends like Lee Haney and Arnold Schwarber with today's bodybuilders.

However, the situation became intense when Yates said, “This is the best male physique in the world, 6-foot-4, with wide shoulders and a small waist. You look at Arnold or Lee Haney…. That’s the ultimate male physique….”

That statement clearly did not sit well with Derek Lunsford, who in response said, “@thrdorianyates is GREAT. But, This is a NEW era that has taken bodybuilding to a NEW LEVEL. We can respect the greats from the past, but this RIGHT NOW is the GREATEST moment in BODYBUILDING HISTORY”.

When that exchange of statements started to look like a debate, Jay Cutler entered the scene. Rxmuscle and BTS TV shared Jay Cutler's statement on their Instagram accounts, in which Cutler was seen defending Derek.

According to him, “When Derek goes back at Dorian and says the greatest time of bodybuilding, there's a lot of meaning to that. It's not to say hey, we're better than you, and people take that as like, oh, it's an arrogant statement. It's not, it's stating that We're in great times…The money's high”.

And no one can deny that. Currently, the prize money for Mr. Olympia has increased to $600,000 from $400,000 in 2023. If we compare it to Dorian Yates' era, then we can see the difference. Yates received $100,000 in prize money from 1992 to 1994. And during his winning from 1995 to 1997, he received $110,000.

And Jay Cutler is not alone in thinking so

Chris Aceto is a former bodybuilding coach. In a podcast on the YouTube channel 'RxMuscle -- The Truth in Bodybuilding' he said it is problematic to compare bodybuilding from two different eras. Still, the important thing is to respect whoever wins the competition. But that's not all.

“Everyone had a much different, their own unique look, like at the ’98 Olympia. If you picture in your head the top 10, how they looked, each guy had a more distinct look than the other, whereas right now, the last couple of years, for example, Derek and Hadi, they have a look that’s similar, which is short and big”.

So, what is your opinion on whether bodybuilding truly evolved, or lost its charm of diversity among the competitors? Tell us in the comments.

Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Siddharth Shirwadkar