The bodybuilding world has been celebrating Chris Bumstead’s accomplishments for a while and even more so after his fifth win as Mr. Olympia in Classic Physique. However, as more and more fans started comparing CBum with top bodybuilders from its Golden era like Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger, some bodybuilding experts don’t seem to think he’s on their level as yet.

In a recent interview, Samir Bannout and John Hansen spoke about how Chris Bumstead got his recognition from comparisons made to the God of Aesthetic, Frank Zane, and the mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, they slammed these perspectives, though they did well not to disregard Bumstead’s merits.

Samir Bannout slammed down CBum’s comparisons with bodybuilders from the Golden Era

Both Bannout and Hansen agreed that Chris Bumstead is certainly one of the more popular bodybuilders of the present day and has a great physique. Bannout stated, “CBum has a beautiful body, good handsome guy who comes in with good quality the muscle value on CBum is not the same as like Arnold. Okay? Just let me be truthful.”

Samir Bannout further commented that Bumstead is certainly bringing back a similar old-school look from the bygone era, yet he cannot find himself calling CBum quite equal to Zane or Schwarzenegger. He stated, “I don’t think CBum has surpassed Arnold or Zanw. I don’t think, sizewise may be in a certain area bigger than Zane. But I don’t think he surpassed Arnold in muscle beauty.”

This is not the first time bodybuilding experts have questioned Chris Bumstead’s skills when other popular bodybuilders are in the context. Previously some enquired whether Bumstead’s virtual followers were authentic or not.

Chris Bumstead’s popularity in question

Though Chris Bumstead is not from the Open Division, he has managed to amass a huge following of over 22 million fans on Instagram. Expert bodybuilding veteran Dave Palumbo talked about how the Open’s winners like Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan nearly do not have as many followers as Bumstead does. Greg Doucette came to defend the five times Mr. Olympia. He said, “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?”

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The Open Division’s popularity and significance are well known, and once-established bodybuilding personas such as Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger would always be considered superior. Yet when the fans look at the present-day scenario, they find themselves similarly appreciating Bumstead, instead. Even Bannout ended up confessing that he has a bit of a bias towards Arnie because he is his hero.

What do you think about Bannout’s comments?

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