Okay, after a great 2016 Olympia weekend, I wanna give my view on what I'm gonna call the 'Levrone Fiasco'.

Firstly, before all you Levrone lovers swamp me with hate mail and death threats, let me say this:
Yes he looked great for a guy of 52yrs of age.
Yes he looked great considering he only trained 6mths for this comp.

That's about where all the nice stuff finishes.
For those Levrone lovers, you might wanna skip the rest of this blurb and unfriend me, because it's gonna be brutal.

From the moment I heard that the IFBB had granted Levrone a Wild Card invitation I was dead against it. To offer a Wild Card to a guy who has not set foot an a bodybuilding stage for 13yrs seemed undeserving to me. Why not offer it to someone who has been a current competitor on the IFBB Pro circuit and has been placing high but not been able to crack it for a win and qualify, or to a current competitor who has suffered an injury or setback?

The simple answer is an opportunity for mutual financial benefit for both the IFBB and Kevin Levrone. For the IFBB, they hype it up, sell seats, sell more sponsorship, create more interest in a boring contest that has had the same winner for the last five years. The whole bodybuilding world can see Phil Heath has no one in the immediate future who is good enough to beat him, so they need to do something to create more interest and excitement. For Kevin Levrone it's the chance of a lifetime to make some seriously good money through his supplements and merchandising.

Social media went wild with everyone debating on whether Levrone could match it with the current Pro's after a 13yr lay-off. Of course he couldn't, but that didn't stop everyone including Levrone himself and guys like Dave Palumbo giving him a legitimate winning chance. Based on what? Placing 6th at his last Mr Olympia contest 13yrs ago? Photos of Levrone popped up everywhere here on Facebook with no one knowing how recent or old they were, but they all had one thing in common - none of them showed off his legs. After the weekend, it is obvious to see why.

To say Levrone looked out of place in the 19 man line-up would be putting it politely. He got smashed. And before you all come to his defence and say what an amazing effort it was for only 6mths prep and how fantastic he looks for 52yrs of age, (which I've already acknowledged), remember this. This is the Mr Olympia, the biggest and most prestigious bodybuilding contest on the planet. The best of the best of the best. It's not a '12 Week Challenge' contest or a 'Mr Feelgood-everyone-wins-a-trophy' contest. Everyone who sets foot on the Olympia stage puts himself up there to be judged against his peers. Levrone is no different to anyone else. Why should he not be judged as honestly and as harshly as every other competitor. He said he was there to win it yet he never came close, but still everyone praises him. Why?

His comeback seemed to be based on him bringing back the classic old-school look of a tiny tapered-in waist as opposed to the current bloated looking waists. He claimed he would have the smallest waist onstage. It might well have been the smallest according to the tape measure, but it didn't look the smallest. It seemed like Levrone and all his fans forgot that to make a waist look small you need a massive set thighs and a very wide back, two of Levrone's weaknesses. This year his back and legs were down, creating a wider looking waist. You didn't have to be a Einstein to realise this would happen, but undercover of all the hype, people lost any semblance of common sense that they had and all jumped on the Levrone bandwagon.

So far I've been pretty nice, but let's be brutally honest here. Levrone is a 52yrs old man. He's not an idiot. He would have known exactly what it takes to be competitive at an Olympia level, he's done it plenty of times successfully in the past. What on earth made him think that what he brought to this years Olympia was going to be competitive? As cynical as it might sound, the obvious reason for him doing this was for the money. The amount of publicity he has received for his supplements and merchandising has been massive! It's a one time chance for him to cash in. Even if he continues to compete next year, which is highly unlikely, the hype is never going to be the same.

For me it was disrespectful to every other competitor on the Olympia stage for him to think that he was good enough to give them all a 13yr head start and think that he could beat them. But still all you sheep carry on about how much you respect him even more for what he did. For me the respect dropped a notch. He should have stayed retired. Adding even more insult to the competitors, Levrone was allowed to present his posing routine in full, despite the fact that he was stone cold last and none of the other competitors who placed outside the Top 10 were afforded the same privilege. You can't have rules for one and not for others. But of course this is bodybuilding and the rules can change at the drop of a hat.

This 'Levrone Fiasco' was always doomed to failure. It was based on greed and it got the result it deserved. Bodybuilding is once again the loser. What other sport does shit like this? Will Tennis Australia invite John Newcombe back to our Davis Cup squad because he was a legend in his day and a ripper bloke who was loved by all? Will Gunsynd run in the Melbourne Cup again so we can all relive the good old glory days?

Hopefully this will be a lesson to the IFBB to either get rid of the Wild Card or use it with a bit more respect and discretion. Levrone should never have been given a Wild Card entry and the results are on the Olympia stage for all to see. The sport of Bodybuilding lacks integrity at the best of times, the last thing it needs is crap like this. Perhaps a Guest Pose would have been more appropriate.

Flame away Levrone lovers.
Sometimes the truth hurts.