Derek Lunsford won the title of Mr. Olympia on Saturday at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. After securing second place in 2022, he found himself in a head-to-head battle with Hadi Choopan, who is also the Mr. Olympian title winner. The Iranian professional bodybuilder Choopan has 15 provincial gold medals (Fars and Tehran provinces) and 6 national medals to his name.
Choopan is called Persian Wolf for a reason; he is the first Iranian to be crowned Mr. Olympia in bodybuilding history. For Derek Lunsford, on the other hand, bodybuilding as a profession came a little late, but he has quickly found himself as one of the most talked-about IFBB Pros on the planet. During the pre-judging round, both bodybuilding champions and the top three finalists set the stage for an intense competition. However, even after insane conditioning, Hadi Choopan could not secure the title.
Hadi Choopan was expected to win
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Generation Iron was uploaded to the pre-final poll, where audience predictions were also taken. This particular prediction showed that the audience believed the Persian Wolf would win Mr. Olympia this time as well. Even Samir Bannout said to RxMuscle during the competition that Hadi Choopan had all the possibilities of winning Mr. Olympia due to his insane conditioning.
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However, Generation Iron uploaded a picture of Choopan and wrote: ?According to the Pre Finals poll – 77% of you believed that Hadi would win the MR O title again. But if you look at the official scorecards on slide 3 – you can see that Derek was in the lead in both pre-judging and finals. For FULL Results and all Score Cards check out Generationiron.com.?
So, according to the audience, the Persian Wolf was already a winner, but the official judgment scorecards projected that Lunsford was leading into three finals. Even before the competition started, Nick Miller also believed Hadi would win.
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Nick Miller uploaded a video predicting Choopan?s win
Nick?s Strength and Power?recently shared a video on their YouTube channel titled??Hadi Choopan Right Before Olympia Prejudging?. One fan also commented that he was deserving of a second title.?Nick Miller said, ?Hadi Choopan just before pre-judging has dropped a massive physique update where you can tell this is recent because this is the same gym that Hany Rambod, Chris Bumstead, Derek Lunsford. They?ve all been posting their peak week, you know final training videos in this same gym.?
He also noticed the amazing conditioning and muscle striations in the bodybuilding champion. He said, ?I think really showing off the crazy condition that he?s in and saying it?s not going to be easy to beat me. I?m bringing what looks to be some of the best conditioning.?
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Watch This Story:?After video of Persian Wolf Hadi Choopan training with coach Hany Rambod resurfaces ahead of last year’s Olympia excitement sparks among bodybuilding fans
Even when fans had already made Hadi the winner in their hearts, ultimately Lunsford took the title because of his overall conditioning and amazing back muscles as well as glutes. Do you think that this time the judgment was right for Mr. Olympia? Tell us in the comments below.