Samson Dauda was unable to defend his 2024 Mr Olympia title this year, instead suffering a significant drop to fourth place. Still, rather than blame others, the “Nigerian Lion” has shown himself to be a true champion by reflecting on what went wrong, and it looks like there is plenty of potential on the horizon.
Dauda surprised many critics last year when he bested Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan to become the 2024 Mr. Olympia, but observers soon weighed-in on whether he could hold on to the trophy, with some pointing to the fact that he’d relinquished the services of coach Milos Sarcev and others saying that his belly was too big.
In an effort to address those concerns, Dauda doubled down on his training and worked hard on his conditioning, so that he could bring an unbeatable package to Las Vegas. In the end, however, hope turned to heartbreak when the champ not only lost his title back to Derek Lunsford but also dropped to fourth place in the process. However, rather than throw a tantrum or point his finger at the judges, the bodybuilder has showed a lot of integrity by identifying his failed strategy in the bid for a back-to-back win.
Samson Dauda Explains His Failed 2025 Olympia Strategy
“I don’t like to do much talking about what happened, or whatever, but I just want to say this,” commented Dauda in a video shared by Beyond The Stage TV. “We pushed conditioning more than we’ve ever pushed before,” he explained. “We went all the way, deep into it, and we just underestimated how long it would take us to fill out and that was basically it,” he admitted with the courage of a true champion.
When Samson Dauda says “us,” he is of course referring to his loving wife and coach, Merlena, who was with him for every step of his herculean prep. “You know, we’ve never pushed conditioning that deep before, and just trying to fill back out, my physique back out, being such a big guy, I mean I’m well over 300 pounds,” he explained. “You can imagine how f***ing disappointed I feel after that but that was basically it, and it’s just the simple point of it. Yeah, it sucked. It sucks.”
While Dauda didn’t have a winning physique at Resorts World on the night, he was praised by fans for a posing routine that showed off the conditioning and endurance gains that he had genuinely made in the run up to the final. Now, if the big man can combine this level of conditioning with more muscle mass, the former champ could one day regain the title of Mr Olympia in epic fashion.
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