Jon Delarosa & Victor Martinez - New York Pro Bros
Victor Martinez & Jon Delarosa - New York Pro Bros
Olympia stalwart Victor Martinez and Jon De La Rosa have forged what may be bodybuilding’s strongest friendship, and when they line up together at this Saturday’s New York Pro, they, for wildly different reasons, will be at a crucial career crossroads.
Prologue
Victor Martinez has endured much in his near 40-year life and come through it all. Here’s just a few of the traumas he’s withstood: a fractious relationship with his Dad; a 2003 felony conviction for which he spent 90 days in jail; the difficulties of being the father of two autistic children; not being able to be there when his Mom died in the Dominican Republic in 2006; the barbaric murder of his sister in 2009; losing the 2007 Mr. Olympia, the most controversial Olympia in recent years; being incarcerated for seven months with the threat of deportation hanging over his head, before being released in April 2012; and suffering the career-threatening injury of breaking his arm in late 2012. Just don’t call him “Lucky.”
By comparison, 31-year-old Jon De La Rosa has lived a relatively calm life. Where there are comparisons are in their physiques and facial features. When those similarities are pointed out to him De La Rosa cracks, “OK, I’m Victor— without the drama. At the New York Pro it’s make or break for Victor. For Jon, it’s the opportunity to take a major step forward. Their story starts with their initial meeting, and then this narrative transitions into a Q & A interview.
WHEN VICTOR MET JON
It was a cold blustery day in March 2006 when rising amateur Jon De La Rosa walked into the Star Fitness USA gym in the Bronx, New York. Despite the frigid temperatures outside, the memory of that day will always imbue a feeling of warmth for De La Rosa. The 21-year-old looked across the gym and there was Victor Martinez, who a few days earlier had finished third at that year’s Arnold Classic. The youngster, who was accompanied by his frequent training partner and father William De La Rosa, exclaimed, “Look Dad, there’s Victor Martinez.”
Like Victor, De La Rosa senior was born in the Dominican Republic before moving to New York, and had been bodybuilding before his son was born. Therefore, Jon grew up with bodybuilding magazines around the house. In 2000, when Victor won the Overall at the NPC Nationals and started to appear in the magazines, William told his 16-year-old son, “Look, this guy’s representing our country and he’s going to be one of the best in the world.” With that homeland connection, the De La Rosa household closely followed Victor’s ascent through the pro ranks.
Jon introduced himself to Victor. Nervously he reached into his training bag, took out some shots of his last contest in which he weighed 176 pounds, and asked the star pro what he thought and what improvements he had to make.
In fact, the bodybuilder who was appearing on the cover of MD regularly had heard about this young bodybuilder from his long time trainer, Victor Munoz. He took the images, reviewed what he saw, and then looking straight at Jon said, “You have what it takes to turn pro.”
Victor recalls, “In looking at the photos, what hit me first was Jon’s great structure and then of course those legs.”
The recipient of Victor’s endorsement was stunned. “I was taken aback by the whole experience. Victor was enormous and in shape. I was maybe 190, he was 260. I didn’t expect him to say I could be a pro. Prior to that I had been optimistic but realistic that I could, with hard work, make it to the pro ranks— but hearing that from Victor catapulted my confidence to another level. It just made me hungrier— made me want to attain a lifestyle like Victor’s even more.”
Besides the physique he saw in the photos, there were other aspects of the amateur’s persona that impacted Victor: “Even in the short time we talked, I could see the hunger in his eyes. He had a genuine passion which sorta reminded me of myself when I was his age.”
De La Rosa left the gym in a daze. Although he couldn’t know it then, it was to be the start of a beautiful friendship.
THE INTERVIEW
McGough: What else do you recall from your initial encounter?
VICTOR: Well, I just didn’t meet Jon, I met his father who is a great guy. I thought how cool is it to have your Dad be your training partner. I thought about how great it would have been if that happened to me. Can’t help but compare my relationship with my Dad to the one Jon has with his.
(Editor’s note: Victor’s relationship with his father was not good. He would often be beaten and the situation forced him to leave home at 17, and become estranged from his father. However, when his father became terminally ill in 2008, it was Victor who looked after him in his final months. Of his father’s last days he says, “We never brought up our previous relationship. There’s an old saying, ‘Put the baby to sleep.’”)
JON: Again we come back to my father. The connection to Victor before we met was the Dominican Republic bond. But as we got to know each other better and trained together, the relationship was so much more than our shared heritage. Before meeting Victor, I had met a few name bodybuilders in the role of a fan, and they’d been OK but it wasn’t like I’d hung out with them. From the get-go, Victor was so much more approachable.
Jon, you’ve described Victor as being like a big brother— expand on that?
JON: He’s always there for me, always adding to my education as a bodybuilder. Although we’ve worked out for years now, I still pay attention to everything he says in the gym. At every workout he gives out some nugget of information: it may be about doing a movement in a different way; changing grip width; some little tip that leads to improvement. I soak it all up— you can never get enough of that.
But more than that, he’s very helpful and supportive in guiding and advising me on stuff outside of bodybuilding. I’m a pretty emotional person, but I’ve always felt comfortable talking to Victor about things that were bothering me in my life. Can’t say it enough: He’s always there for me. I still look up to Victor today like I did the first day we met.
Victor, how do you feel about being a big brother to Jon?
VICTOR: It’s not difficult helping Jon. I’ve been bodybuilding for a long time, and you see guys hit the gym make progress for a year and then fade away— usually because it’s too tough. Jon isn’t one of those guys. He’s always been so hungry, so dedicated and eager to know more so that he can achieve more. He has a deep passion for the sport without it being unhealthy. He keeps a straight head, doesn’t go crazy. He’s such a sincere guy that it’s easy to be there for him and be a big brother to him. Add in his great family and it’s a slam-dunk to befriend Jon. We forged a friendship pretty quickly after we first met.
Victor, tell us about breaking your arm in September 2012.
VICTOR: I was in Mexico City with Jon, making an appearance for our sponsor, MHP. I was to guest pose at the evening finals and after the prejudging, Jon and I were making our way out when some guys wanted to take a photo of me arm wrestling. It wasn’t real— we were faking. Then this guy just slams my arm down and it just went POP! I was in so much pain that they took me to the local hospital, where they gave me painkillers and said I had broken my humerus bone but there was no muscle tear. They started talking about doing surgery, but unless you want a boob or butt implant that’s not the place to go under the knife. The next day we flew to LA, and eventually I underwent three hours of surgery at UCLA.
Jon, did you see the break?
JON: I didn’t see it, I heard it. I was two or three steps in front of Victor as we were trying to move through the crowd. Victor being Victor agreed to the arm wrestling thing. And then bang, I heard this loud snap and crack type noise. I immediately looked over to him and he was staring straight at me— I’m sure my eyes were like bulging out of my head. My first thought was he had torn his biceps. Then he took his arm off the table and it like dangled over the end of it. I thought, “Jeez!!” He was in a lot of pain. I actually feel guilty about the whole thing. One time I had been playing basketball and hurt my knee and Victor told me, “Dude, you have to make your mind up whether you want to be in the NBA or the IFBB?” So as I looked at his broken arm I thought, Damn, Victor looked out for me on that occasion. I should have looked out for him by telling him not to do the arm wrestling.
Victor, after all you’ve been through, what went through your mind when you broke your arm?
VICTOR: It was like MD’s problem child strikes again. What have I done wrong? Doesn’t God like me? Gimme a break— and it was like, well, He did give me a break. Then pretty quickly I cleared my head of any negative thoughts. It was like Fuck! Let me get by this and get to my next contest.
Jon, you’ve seen Victor go through all these traumas: the 2003 legal problems; controversially losing the 2007 Olympia; tearing his quad; the murder of his sister; being incarcerated for seven months; breaking his arm. Are you surprised he isn’t bitter?
JON: What I admire most about Victor is the dude’s got a massive heart and great inner strength. He’s been knocked down so many times but always finds a way to get back up. With all that Victor has experienced, he has remained a great human being, and taken care of his family— particularly around the time of his sister’s death in 2009. I saw Victor have to deal with her murder, become the family leader, identify her and bury her, and still have the fortitude to go onstage two months later at the Olympia. How many could have done the same? Most guys would have crumbled. I couldn’t have done it.
That’s why I get annoyed when I see negative things said about him and posted on forums that he’s done. I get so pissed with that. He’s been top six in the world for a decade. He should have rightfully won the 2007 Olympia. And he’s done all that having to go through a much harder life than anybody else. I can deal with what people throw at me much better than I can deal with stuff said against Victor. I’m very much a family person: Victor is family, so don’t mess with us.
Are you actually training partners?
JON: I live in New Rochelle [in Westchester County, New York] and Victor lives in New Jersey so we don’t train together all the time— maybe a couple of times a week. We get together in Manhattan at either 19th Street Gym or Steel City Gym. I draw a lot of inspiration and motivation from watching him train. Not sure if he can say the same about me. Victor’s pretty outgoing outside the gym, but when he works out it’s all business. We both get into the zone and have tunnel vision about putting everything into the set. We push some heavy weights and quietly urge each other to go to failure— we don’t scream and throw weights around. We’re definitely not a Branch and Johnnie duo.
Jon, how would you describe the Victor you know?
JON: One of the strongest people I know. He’s been through so much in his life but he always found a way to get back on course and prevail. And through all this he took care of his family and children. A lot of people would have given up and walked away, but he never did. I respect that. He’s an incredible man— he resembles my father in a way. I trust him totally on anything and everything. I’m sure our friendship will last a lifetime.
Victor, describe Jon.
VICTOR: Jon is too fucking nice, man. You won’t hear anybody in the industry having a beef or fighting with Jon. It’s just not gonna happen. If it does, you know the fault is with the other person. He’s good-hearted and very thoughtful. He’s great to be around and has always been concerned about the stuff I was going through. Loves his family and friends. Someone you can always rely on. The kind of guy you would call if you had a car breakdown, were moving house or wanted help dismembering a body.
Nah, when we first met it was clear the drive to be a pro was embedded in him. So I was glad to give him input and advice, but he still had to do it himself. Back then I knew Jon would be a pro, so the great thing has been the excitement of watching it happen and being there for him. It was a bit like history repeating itself, in the way my trainer Victor Munoz saw me as a young amateur and knew I was going to be a pro. Being in the same lineup is really special. I’m proud to be part of Jon’s journey.