The controversy regarding whether Mr. Olympia‘s Open division competitors or Classic Physique competitors are more popular continues to divide the bodybuilding world. Five-time Mr. Olympia Classic Physique winner Chris Bumstead has, in the past, shown his aversion to the Open’s division. He can be considered the flagbearer of the change in the stereotype that the Men’s Open is the most popular division in competitive bodybuilding.

Chris Bumstead has 22.3M followers on Instagram, which is much more than many other popular bodybuilders of the bygone era. Recently, controversy arose about whether his followers are legitimate account holders or not. Now, IFBB Pro coach Greg Doucette has slammed a veteran bodybuilder who was discussing it.

Greg Doucette slams down comments against Chris Bumstead’s following

Bodybuilding veteran Dave Palumbo recently talked about how Chris Bumstead has gained a humongous following of 22M, despite being just a Classic Physique contestant. He discussed with his guests that there are bodybuilders from Open Divisions like Derek Lunsford and Samson Dauda who can’t boast as big a following. Taking this matter up, Greg Doucette pointed out how even Sam Sulek, a teenage bodybuilder who hasn’t competed yet, has already gained over 4M followers himself.

Doucette also pointed out how this number of followers does not really matter on the division or the amount of Mr. Olympia titles one has won. He stated, “Chris literally has more followers than Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, and Phil Heath combined—three guys who won close to 20 Mr Olympia titles. Chris on his own, is more popular than all three put together. And so, when you say, ‘Oh! Classic physique shouldn’t deserve all that money.’ Are you kidding me?”

The idea of a balance between the superiority of the Open’s Division and Classic Physique is almost never met. Even the 4x Mr. Olympia winner Jay Cutler has reflected on his views on the subject.

Jay Cutler dismisses CBum’s Classic Physique titles as an equal to Open’s reputation

In one of the episodes of Cutler Cast, Jay Cutler and Manager Matt explicitly talked about how Classic Physique does not have equal positions as the “classic” Opens. And then they also belittled CBum’s titles not being anywhere equal to even one Open’s title. They said, “Mr Olympia Arnold is a seven-time Mr Olympia. He beat everybody that was in that class. That was the only class. Chris has five classic physique titles but that’s not the same as one open Olympia.”

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Whether Open division should get the most priority over Classic Physique does not really come in between a bodybuilder’s popularity. There have been several instances and Greg Doucette does not hesitate to point it out to prove his point.

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