from looking at the pre judging to the actual show i saw 2 quite different ronnies.
the pre judging he looked noticeably smaller in the shoulders and his chest was flat...this made his gut and waist look bigger than normal.his arms looked thin to me, still huge but not the usual full and round but stupid ripped that they always were. his legs were no where near where they were the previous years. jay though, was hardly impressive. i thought his arms looked small all over, his waist looked wide and his mid section wasnt any better than ronnies.his chest and shoulders just looked soft. this is why from the pics i have seen of the prejudging i think ronnie got robbed.
then in the actual show, i dont know maybe he knew he had lost,maybe he knew months before he was going to lose, and ate some carbs or whatever because suddenly he looked fuller all over, but not as hard. while jay looked a bit harder and his waist wasnt as big as before..his chest and shoulders had hardened and then i could see why people think he should have won.
what happened to ronnies back?the once unbelievably wide and defined back that had muscle on top of muscle and deep cuts throughout.....just wasnt there. personally i think thats where jay got him.as big as jay is, in years passed put the 2 next to each other and the shear size of ronnie and the amount of visible muscles he had made jay look very average.(which i still think he is but thats a different story)this year tho...with ronnies back being smaller and shoulders narrower he just didnt have that overall width and thickness to outshine jay.
that being said....in my opinion jay has a hideous physique and shouldnt be mr olympia. i have never understood the hype he seems to attract, but hey thats just my opinion. i wonder if ronnie will bother with trying again next year.by all rights he shouldnt be looking the way he does at 42, so for him to come back next year....bigger and harder than ever isnt really all that hard to imagine.