Before we go any further, the unnamed ‘TMZ Staff’ member who put this crap up on their website (http://www.tmz.com/2010/05/22/mr-olympia-jay-cutler-muscle-photo/#comments) didn’t even have the balls to do it under their name. In less than 24 hours, there has been an accumulation of seven pages of reader’s comments, one as feeble as the last.

One of the ‘geniuses’ even broke ground by writing that this was an obvious case of steroid abuse! Wow, thanks for clearing that up, jdohe! Of course there was the regular comments about getting back your balls, half a man in certain areas, it will all turn to flab when he stops exercising and even one happy-ass TMZ junkie calling bodybuilding ‘professional weightlifting.’

Let me make one thing perfectly clear – when an overwhelming amount of folks are all throwing barbs at someone with muscles to be proud of all resort to hiding behind a screen name and anonyminity, they are showing obvious jealousy and their small-man complex shines through. And to assume that steroids were the only factor in Cutler becoming a three-time Sandow winner also shows how the uneducated public thinks. I suppose that the 20 minutes on the treadmill a few times a month gives them enough credibility in the gym to look sideways at someone who really trains like a man.

They say that bodybuilders don’t have balls (literally) when it is in fact they who are ballless.

This is why the mainstream will never accept bodybuilding as a sport and lifestyle. They refuse to give it the time to learn about it enough where they see what is really about. You know what I say? Let them sit on their fat asses and make comments like this. We have the last laugh. And if they ever come out of their hiding spot and say it to someone’s face, they’ll just end up getting their asses kicked in.

Photo by Francisco Pillari

Business is business. The cold, harsh reality is that Dexter Jackson is not the type of person that makes someone grab a magazine off the newsstand and plunk down their $4.00 or more for it. No offense towards the newly-crowned Mr. Olympia, but he was basically not controversial enough to warrant any good (or bad, depending on which way you’re looking at it) press. Thus, he didn’t warrant any covers in the world of bodybuilding magazines.

For right or wrong, Jackson is too ‘vanilla’ and this industry survives and strives by the ‘wow’ factor, which Jackson doesn’t bring. Is he a champion bodybuilder that deserves cover features? Absolutely, but a publisher has to look at the bottom line. The main selling point of print industry is the cover and headline. Why do you think piece of shit rags like the New York Post and the National Enquirer have made such an impact?

Jay Cutler brought an air of controversy with him due to the blocky look that attracted so much criticism. Was he a great champion? That is debatable, but he was and still is a face and body that sells. Like him or not, Cutler’s popularity cannot be disputed.

Perusing the newsstand shelves and the covers of the latest bodybuilding mags, ‘Muscular Development’ has Dennis Wolf; ‘Flex’ gives us a UFC-theme with Randy Couture and Brock Lesnar; ‘Muscle & Fitness’ stayed in the octagon with Frank Mir; ‘Iron Man’ has a faceless bodybuilder and ‘MuscleMag International’ shows Johnnie Jackson with a sub-heading of “Who Got Robbed at the Mr. Olympia?” Interesting indeed.

As far as Wolf is concerned, he may be the most overrated bodybuilder of today’s era. Because so many people try to compare him to Arnold, he receives a hell of a lot of attention that he really doesn’t deserve. Jackson is a decent guy, but an odd choice for a cover and not one that would make a difference as far as star power is concerned. Oddly enough, his name doesn’t even appear on the cover. The UFC angle is something that is a good cross-over market, but to have not one, but two publications from the same company go in that direction is a bit odd. There must be more to the story or at least some type of agreement in place.

So, there are many reasons why our new Mr. O is getting pushed to the back pages of even his own industry publications. And that is a shame, indeed.