The latest episode of The Menace Podcast featured host Dennis James, Chris Cormier, Milos Sarcev and Sarcev’s star athlete Samson Dauda, who was coming off a win at the 2023 Arnold Classic in Columbus, OH. . Dauda won $300,000 for his efforts, and he’s now qualified for the 2023 Mr. Olympia competition, which will be held in Orlando, Fla., from November 2-5. Dauda reflected on how he felt winning the 35th edition of the historic contest.
“I believed I could do it,” Dauda said when asked by James what he thought of his chances. “I think it was after the Olympia that I really started to believe that I could win.”
Dauda finished sixth at Olympia 2022, won by Hadi Choopan. The Arnold Classic favorite in the eyes of many was Nick Walker, who finished in second place. Dauda felt that being on a show three months later actually served him well due to the adjustments he made between the two shows.
“I’m always better the second time around. I knew I was going to be better enough to do it.
That sentiment was validated when Dauda came out on the first call and was placed in the middle by head judge Steve Weinberger. Once Dauda took this place, he did not want to give it up.
“I was like ‘no, please don’t move me anymore. I’m fine here,'” he said with a laugh.
After the win, many fans and pundits compared Dauda to eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney due to their similar shape and structure. Haney himself even acknowledged this, which Dauda thought was a big deal.
“You’re talking about an eight-time Mr. Olympia, someone you watched winning long before you even had a clue what bodybuilding was, and being like ‘wow, that’s a crazy physique. “.”
Dauda spoke more about his competition frequency, his background before bodybuilding and how he made Fouad Abiad cry, among other topics. Subscribe to the Muscle & Fitness YouTube Channel so you can catch every new episode of TMP every Sunday at 3 p.m. EST.
