A record of eight consecutive Mr. Olympia titles. A physique bulked up like no other. And a police officer who would take 3 months off to prepare for the Mr. Olympia competition. All these things define the legendary Ronnie Coleman. Every year from 1998 to 2005, the Mr. Olympia champion’s throne was sat on by nobody else.

While we loved seeing Coleman and his baby-Esque smile, seeing him win the Mr. Olympia competition for eight consecutive years became monotonous.

Shawn Ray’s account of Jay Cutler’s win against Ronnie Coleman

2006 was perhaps one of the most important years in the life of Ronnie Coleman. After winning the most coveted title in bodybuilding for the first time in 1998, Coleman won seven more. A win in 2006 would have meant Ronnie would become the most decorated Mr. Olympia athlete ever, with nine titles to his name. But Jay Cutler, who had been trying for years to best Ronnie, could finally de-throne the King in a close battle.

Addressing the same in the documentary, ‘Ronnie Coleman: The King,’ former bodybuilder Shawn Ray discussed how Ronnie’s loss was inevitable. Ray said, “When Jay knocked out the champ, it validated years of work that Ronnie Coleman had done before him. And there’s not a champion out there that’s not susceptible to getting knocked out and getting beaten. We’ve seen it happen. We saw Mike Tyson lose, we saw Muhammad Ali lose, and we saw Ronnie Coleman lose to Jay.”

READ MORE: “I Have a Chance to Survive”: 58-Year-Old Ronnie Coleman, Who Has Gone Through 13 Surgeries, Fights Through His Medical Obstacles

While Coleman was visually distraught after his loss, it was not how he looked at his career. Given the chance, Coleman would surely do it all again just to re-live his love for the competitive side of the sport.

Coleman copied Shawn Ray’s posing routine

The ’90s era was one of the most competitive bodybuilding eras of all time. Dorian Yates, Kevin Levrone, Shawn Ray, Ronnie Coleman, and Flex Wheeler; were all competing side by side in the big leagues. The competition also gave way for people to study and understand each other’s posing routines.

But Ronnie took things to a different level. Having understood the 1991 Arnold Classic champion Shawn Ray’s routine, he copied it for the 1998 Mr. Olympia event. Revealing the same in a conversation with Ray, Coleman said, “Shawn, I never told you this before, but when I won my first Mr. Olympia in 1998, my posing routine was taken from one of yours, pose for pose. Actually, there were a couple of your poses I couldn’t do, so I just hit a most muscular.”

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In his prime, there was no defeating Ronnie Coleman. Every bodybuilder who competed alongside or saw Ronnie compete from 1998 onwards, claims he was superhuman. Even Jay Cutler, the man who took over Ronnie’s throne, has claimed he never beat Coleman in his prime. Ronnie indeed was The King of the sport and perhaps the greatest bodybuilder ever.