2005 Iron Man Pro - Weigh In and Pump Room DVD Review
By Matt Canning

In this video you will see the exciting weigh in with the on stage checking of the body weight of every competitor by LONNIE TEPER. See the impromptu posedown between GUSTAVO BADELL & TROY ALVES and then FRANK ROBERSON versus MELVIN ANTHONY for the best rap poser! All of this took place preceding the 2005 Iron Man Pro contest.

2005 Iron Man Pro - Weigh In and Pump Room Video Review.

The event was held in association with The FIT Expo.

Pasadena Center Civic Auditorium, CA, February 18/19, 2005.

The DVD started off with a preview clip from the main event, with Lee Priest being presented with the second place award and Gustavo Badell being awarded with the first place award. Ronnie Coleman was on hand to present the award as well as a spokesperson from MuscleTech.

Back to this video: Next up was Lonnie Teper, master of ceremonies to announce the weigh ins.

Troy Alves was the first to weigh in. Lonnie the Swami predicted that Troy would weigh 221 pounds and this figure turned out to be accurate. Lonnie asked Troy if he was going to take off his shirt and hit some poses but Troy declined. Lonnie joked that he would get Ron Avidan of GetBig to go up there and pose with him.

Melvin Anthony was up next to weigh in. The Swami predicted 233 pounds and once again, Lonnie was correct.

Gustavo Badell, the eventual winner, was up next to weigh in. Gustavo said that 2005 would be an even better year than 2004 and that he was competing to be at his personal best. Lonnie predicted his weight at 240 pounds and Gustavo ended up being 250 pounds. Remember that he is only 5'7! Lonnie asked Gustavo to take his shirt off and he did. He was looking big and cut and had a great tan. He posed his legs as well, and other than his distended stomach, he looked great from head to toe. His back double biceps pose was out of sight. Once Gustavo started to pose, Troy Alves did as well. Melvin showed his abs and claimed to have a 27 inch waist - certainly the smallest of any top level competitor.

Jimmy Canyon weighed in next. Lonnie predicted 180 pounds and Jimmy ended up weighging in at 183 pounds.

Mark Dugdale weighed in next. Lonnie predicted 205 pounds (up nine pounds from his pro card winning victory at the USA championships). Mark turned out to be 208 pounds of shredded muscle at 5'6. Definitely one of the better of the smaller bodybuilders out there.

Youssef El Zein weighed in next with Lonnie predicting 250. Youssef turned out to weigh in at 247. He took off his shirt to pose and was looking huge and cut.

Derik Farnsworth posed next predicting to be the "shortest man on stage" in jest. He turned out to be 171 pounds after Lonnie predicted a body weight of 170.

Lonnie predicted that David Henry would weigh in at 188 pounds with Ron Avidan of GetBig predicting 189. He ended up weighing in at 191 at 5'5. David took off his shirt and hit some poses. He looked big and very shredded.

Rusty Jeffers weighed in next. He won the Masters Nationals contest and was 40 years old at the time of the show. He weighed in at 235 pounds after Lonnie made the same prediction.

Heiko Kallbach weighed in next at 275 pounds.

King Kamali weighed in next at 254 pounds.

Patrick Lynn weighed in next at 223 after stating his body weight was 220 (he was wearing clothes so 223 makes sense).

Christian Lobarade weighed in at 262 next, making him one of the heavier bodybuilders competing.

Francesco Mazzotta weighed in next at 232 pounds.

Next Mike Morris stepped up to the scale with a prediction of 236. He ended up being 238.

Jojo N'tiforo showed up next and Lonnie told the crowd that his father ran track during the 1960 Olympic games. Lonnie predicted 240 pounds but Jojo ended up weighing 225 pounds. Lonnie said he must have on a thick sweatshirt.

Jocelyn Pelletier, age 57, was up next to weigh in. He weighed in at 153 pounds.

Lee Priest weighed in next at 203 pounds.

Frank Roberson weighed in next. He weighed 243 pounds

Craig Titus weighed in next at 238 pounds after Lonnie predicted a body weight of 240.

Massimo Valli weighed in at 225 pounds.

Eduard Van Amsterdam said he took a 14 hour flight to get to the contest. He weighed in at a whopping 305 pounds. Yikes!

Idrise Ward-El weighed in next at 250 after Lonnie predicted 252.

The final competitor in the contest was Hidetada Yamagishi who weighed in at 194 pounds.

Lonnie asked the bodybuilders to pose down, but Craig Titus explained that some of them were still "under construction" so to speak. Idrise Ward-El took his shirt off to pose and was looking good. Rusty Jeffers also posed. Melvin and Frank Roberson both hit some poses with their shirts on.

Next we went backstage to the pump room. Heiko Kallbach was applying oil to himself and was looking big and shredded - with his usual stomach distention problem present.

Craig Titus was int he room looking grainy. His skin was paper thin and his muscularity was good as well. Craig is known for a few flaws - most notably a weak chest, a wide waist and stomach distention. Those flaws were present, but otherwise he was looking sharp. He was being oiled backstage which improved his appearance.

Heiko was doing rope pulls to pump up. His traps were looking very big and separated from behind.

Some of those who were backstage were obviously going to place high at the show. Lee Priest was back there looking dense and shredded and had a great tan to boot. He later finished second and it was pretty obvious that he probably would based on what he looked like backstage. His arms were as big as ever.

Melvin Anthony was backstage working out and King Kamali was there too with his wife who was helping do his oil.

Troy Alves hit some poses and had some freaky cross striations in his chest. King's waist was looking fairly wide but otherwise he looked ok.

Looking at some of the competitors pumping up backstage it was obvious that some were going to be way up there in the placings and that others wouldn't even be close. All in all the results of the show were basically what I expected.

Heiko hit some poses backstage but simply has too wide a waist and too large a stomach to do any significant damage in the pro ranks. His muscularity is immense though - he definitely doesn't lack in that regard.

The pros continued to oil up and pump and pose backstage.

Troy Alves certainly deserved his top three finish and Olympia invitation. His conditioning was at an all time best and he was no slouch in the muscularity department either.

Frank Roberson was backstage with a cowboy hat on which he actually posed with in the contest. To me this was a poor touch since the hat was only distracting.

Some of Melvin Anthony's great posing was shown next and the official placings were shown in the credits for the DVD:

2003 Ironman Pro Invitational Contest Results
1st Gustavo Badell
2nd Lee Priest
3rd Troy Alves
4th Melvin Anthony
5th King Kamali
6th Craig Titus
7th David Henry
8th Mark Dugdale
9th Mike Morris
10th Idrise Ward-El
11th Jojo N'tiforo
12th Rusty Jeffers
13th Ed Van Amsterdam
14th Frank Roberson
15th Heiko Kallbach
16th Jimmy Canyon
- Youssef El Zein
- Derik Farnsworth
- Christian Lobarede
- Francesco Mazzotta
- Jocelyn Pelletier
- Massimo Valli
- Hidetada Yamagishi

All in all this is a great video taking you behind the scenes of a major event, shot by Wayne Gallasch for GMV, and running for 90 minutes.