The Tampa Pro has quietly turned into one of the most competitive mid-summer events on the IFBB schedule over the last few years. Last season Hunter Labrada turned the weekend into his personal showcase on the way to delivering what was arguably the best overall performance of his career. Back in 2022 Akim Williams ripped off an impressive win, despite having to beat back former 212 Olympia champion Kamal Elgargni who, at the time, was on his own personal mission to wreak havoc in the Open Division. And back in 2021, we saw Iain Valliere, at the peak of his powers, cut through the entire lineup like a buzzsaw on the way to clinching his Olympia qualification.
Like what we’ve seen from past winners, last weekend the warm weather on the southern shores of Florida brought out the best in Jon Delarosa. For the better part of the last decade, Jon has been widely regarded by fans and his peers alike as one of the truly good guys in bodybuilding. And, when you take into consideration that he’s not too far removed from a series of injuries and life events that resulted in a three-year sabbatical, which is usually a career death sentence for bodybuilders in their prime, securing an Olympia bid with his win last weekend puts a pretty ribbon on a story that has now essentially come full circle.
But here’s the thing, even though Jon’s win is a great story, I think it actually would’ve been better for the sport of bodybuilding as a whole if Mo Foda would have been the last man standing. That’s not to say that Jon’s physique wasn’t deserving of the placing he received, because it absolutely was. He was, or close to, his all-time best, so I’m not playing Monday morning quarterback, or trying to levy some sort of nonsensical indictment saying the judges got it wrong, which is what we see so often now from social media commentators and YouTube personalities in the bodybuilding sphere.
The judging and the result aren’t my issue – the desperate need for an infusion of young new talent occupying space at the highest levels of bodybuilding is.
Over the last decade, I’ve written and spoken about bodybuilding being a star driven sport that has an astonishing lack of parody enough times that I don’t feel like I need to go into detail about it again here. Seeing the Jon Delarosa’s, Nathan Deasha’s, and William Bonac’s of the world return to top form at various points in the season is nostalgic and, I guess, to a certain extent, also fun as a longtime fan and member of the bodybuilding media world as I watch athletes that I’ve covered for more than a decade prove they still have what it takes to hold their own against some of the best in the world on a given night – but I also recognize that the seeing the same faces at the top of the page now that we did back in the mid 2010’s doesn’t do much to attract new fans to the sport.
The age of bodybuilding news, culture, and coverage living in old-school muscle magazines is dead, and its not coming back. Today’s bodybuilding conversations and commentary happen on social media and YouTube, which has a younger audience that is going to have a natural affinity for competitors and commentators they see as peers.
Does that mean a younger audience can’t, or won’t have a deep appreciation and respect for bodybuilders the Delarosa’s, Bonac’s, and the Shaun Clarida’s of the world? No, not in the last. In all likelihood they’ll have a deep admiration for the decades of time they’ve poured into the game to earn their well-deserved status as OG’s.
But, to a younger audience, respect and appreciation aren’t going to move the needle in the same way that having admiration for competitors like Mo Foda, and Nihat Kiyah, who are close enough in age that they're going to view them as peers with him status they can aspire to be like.
As a lifelong sports fan, I’ve seen star driven leagues like the NBA and PGA make this mistake time and time again. It’s fine to ride the wave of transcendent superstars, because they’re who sell tickets and bring eyeballs to help grow the business model. But, to that same end, when you fail to recognize that you have a star driven sport that fails to nurture and market young talent, one day you can wake up and find yourself with viewership that’s in the tank, just like the NBA did during this year’s Lebron James-less finals.
Star driven sports need young talent, and young voices commenting on the state of the game to capture new audiences. So if the IFBB doesn’t want to have its own Lebron James-esque situation on its hands in a few years, now is the time to start putting those plans into motion.
