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Held in a brand new location in conjunction with the FITEXPO, Iron Man moved up market this year to the beautiful Pasadena Civic Centre.  A three-day FitExpo was held from the Friday through Sunday with the pro show and NPC Figure Class contest taking place on Saturday.  

The Expo was quite outstanding with star seminars, workshops (including yoga and fit-dance and aerobics), stage performances, prejudging pro weigh-in, world’s strongest man events and powerlifting workshops, and so on.  The Expo could be the subject of a separate Hard News; it had so much to offer.  

We have never seen such fantastic bodybuilding seminars given by so many stars.  Just check out these names – Ronnie Coleman, Günter Schlierkamp, Lee Priest, Quincy Taylor, Chris Cook, Roland Kickinger, Cory Everson, Timea Majorova, and more!  All of this was included with the entry price of only $12.00 per day.  Utterly  amazing value.  It was worth travelling from all corners of USA to attend this gig.

As mentioned the pro show weigh-in took place at the FitExpo and was expertly coordinated by Lonnie Teper in his usual humorous style.  Many of the guys stripped off to be weighed and some hit impromptu poses for the packed audience.  I hope this innovative feature continues at the Iron Man and could be picked up by the other pro show promoters.

Tom Prince attended the weigh-in but sadly next day on the day of the contest he had to withdraw due to feeling ill.  I believe Tom has now announced retirement.  Contest day was very busy for us with the men’s prejudging in the Civic Centre, NPC Figure prejudging back on the Expo stage in the Expo area, then back again to our superb taping position in the Civic Centre ready for the evening finals.

After hooking up my camera to the big TV screen it was time for the 20 guys to come out on stage in what was the first pro show for the year.  All the competitors were razor sharp, which is traditionally the case for their first pro show of the year.  It seemed to be a battle between Dexter ‘The Blade’ Jackson and Lee Priest for 1^st and Gustavo Badell and Ahmad Haidar for 3^rd and 4^th.  That is how it ended up.

What a turnaround for Lee Priest.  2^nd last in the Mr. Olympia a few months before, to contender for 1^st at the Iron Man.  He was 20 pounds lighter, tighter and hard.  In the front-on poses he looked superior to Dexter.  But in the rear poses, Dexter pulled ahead with his thicker back and excellent hamstrings and good overall symmetry.  It was going to be close and as expected “The Blade” won his first ever Iron Man.

I feel this was the best I have ever seen Badell.  He was tighter and harder than he was in the 2002 Mr. Olympia.  He was a worthy 3^rd place finisher with his entry to the big event in the Las Vegas come October.

Most unlucky man was Ahmad Haidar, formerly of Lebanon and now a resident of Florida.  He was equally worthy of the Olympia this year and if anything he was even tighter than Badell, together with the best abs in the contest.   I expect he will qualify, as he is right on the edge of appearing in his second Olympia.

In 5^th place was Craig Titus.  I know Craig was not happy with his placing.  But if he looks at the video/DVD of the event, he will see his placing was totally fair and in fact new pro David Henry pushed him all the way with his incredible condition and symmetry in 6^th place.  David is the only pro serving the full time US Military.  Hope he doesn’t get posted to IRAQ.

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