Host Dennis James was joined by his regular panelists, Chris Cormier and Milos Sarcev, along with special guests Sergio Oliva Jr and Victor Martinez for Episode 226 of The Menace Podcast, and the guys got cathartic by reliving the shows that they regret entering the most.
“Give me one show, if you even have one, that you regretted stepping on stage,” asked Dennis James, who has competed in seven Olympia events. The host kicked things off my admitting that as relates to the 2012 Masters Mr. Olympia in Miami, he was not happy with third place and should have “stayed my ass home.”
Victor Martinez shared that he felt the 2017 Olympia was his worst day on stage. With his peak performances taking place in 2007, Martinez won the Arnold Classic and came runner-up to Mr Olympia that year, but in 2017, he failed to place in the Olympia at all.
“For me, it’s the one that Victor won: 2003 Night of the Champions,” says Milos Sarcev, a former Mr Universe. “I had no business being there but I signed the contract (to be there), right?” The legend explains that during 2003, ‘The Mind’ was “a big time mess, but I had to do it. I just hated it.”
Chris Cormier says that one of his worst experiences on stage occurred during a competition in Canada after suffering an infected spine in 2006. “After I had that hospital stint, came back from the dead, did the show in Canada,” reflects the bigtime bodybuilder who’s career includes an impressive third place at Mr Olympia in both 1999 and 2002. For that show in 2006 though, Cormier shares he just wasn’t in the right shape to compete.
Sergio Oliva Jr, who followed in his father’s lofty footsteps and won many competitions in his own right, including victory at the New York Pro in 2017, says that his worst memory is more recent than his peers. “2023, when I got out of the jail from Dubai” he shares. “It was so stupid. I just thought in my head that it was gonna be like a movie. I’m gonna get out of jail, I’m gonna go back to California where I’d moved from, and I’m gonna do this show and go to the Olympia. When bodybuilding’s hard as f***. You’re not going to be able to do s*** like that.”
While Oliva Jr had been inspired by a similar feat from Martinez, who’d had a spell in a Brazilian prison, the ending would not be the same for him. “I should have just come back to the States and chilled,” reflects Oliva now. Incredibly, he still placed third, however.
Episode 226 was a packed show that also discussed the Detroit Pro, William Bonac, and the Pittsburgh Pro among other hot bodybuilding subjects. To view the entire podcast see below.
