Written by Peter McGough
29 September 2015

15yellowbrickroad-peter

Hi, Ho, Follow the Yellow Brick Road?

New Federation: A Personal View

 

 

You get to a certain age (66) and in increasingly processing the comings and goings in bodybuilding you get little blasé. Years ago in gossip meister mode I’d be all over any breaking news, but with the onset of time, augmented by white hair, dodgy knees and creaking back, I adopt a more sedate approach and don’t feel the need to be all over a story like a prime Ray Lewis all over a quarterback. So shortly before the Olympia Weekend (September 18th and 19th) when the news broke that former NPC Texas Chairman Lee Thompson was breaking away from his former allegiance and launching a new federation, my first reaction was, “Oh, let the children play.” But certain aspects of the whole affair leave me wanting to speak out, so for what its worth I offer some random thoughts

 

  1. 1. Its being claimed the new federation will present bodybuilding as it should be, that it will be better and fairer than the way the NPC/IFBB does things. If we look back at recent black eyes for the IFBB/NPC (like Cedric McMillan being late for the 2013 Arnold Brasil athletes meeting and not being allowed to compete; like the 2014 Arnold Brasil fiasco where Lionel Beyeke was shockingly placed fourth instead of first) right dab in the middle of those decisions was Mr. Thompson and stories have started to circulate about other anomalies he’s been responsible for. So how can I put this? This gentleman proclaiming he’s carrying the torch to a new promised land for bodybuilding is akin to Miley Cyrus taking a vow of humility and chastity.

  2. 2. In a move cheesier than a Philly steak sandwich the new federation is calling itself NPCGlobal with NPC not standing for National Physique Committee. What does it stand for? How about “No Proper Credibility”? Why, as late as two days before he announced his new federation Thompson told NPC Chairman Jim Manion he had no intention to do so.

  3. 3. The Chairman of the “No Proper Credibility” outfit was in Vegas over Olympia Weekend (September 19) and, in tandem with a couple of attorneys and a heavy or two, attended a Meet n’ Greet hosted by Kai Greene. This was a further attempt to align themselves with Kai and his current estranged situation with the Olympia promoters and to portray him as Exhibit A in their anti-IFBB/NPC discontented strategy. This is in line with their promotional videos opening up with a quote from a non-connected Kai. C’mon, the dispute is between Kai and American Media Inc. (AMI, who are co-promoters of the Olympia weekend), the IFBB has nothing to do with the issue. In trying to ingratiate himself with Kai at the Meet n’ Greet, Thompson got into a spat with Kai’s contest prep advisor George Farah. According to witnesses George complained about Thompson trying to connect Kai with the new federation. Thompson was seemingly offended by Farah’s stance and – unbelievably – called the police. The episode ended with no charges being made. Since then Kai has gone public saying the IFBB/NPC is his home.

  4. 4. Here’s an insight into an episode I experienced with Lee Thompson. By most observers accounts Lionel Beyeke being placed fourth at the 2014 Arnold Brasil, when he should have won, was probably the worst result in recent memory. I wasn’t at the contest but I followed it online and shortly after the result spoke to Dennis James, who was there in the role of Beyeke’s contest prep advisor. He told me head judge Thompson had told him Beyeke was marked down for site injections and not holding his poses correctly. I studied all the footage (film and stills) I could find and could not see any site injections or clunky presentation. I was openly super critical of the result, some parties speculating that I would get banned for such outpourings. A couple of days later I spoke to Thompson and he repeated his reasons for Beyeke’s placings. He came up with the argument that to really see what was going on you had to be there in the first 15 rows. I’ve heard that view so many bloody times and refute it. As I told Thompson, with modern digital cameras you get a first class view of what a physique looks like if you’re not there. And if you have to be in the first 15 rows and digital images are not reliable, then why are spectator tickets sold from the 16th row backwards and why do we post any photos at all of contests if the images are misleading?

  5. 5. Anyway, we went back and forth and I suggested to Thompson that we go on Dan Solomon’s Pro Bodybuilding Worldwide radio show and discuss the matter. But he was traveling and so that debate never took place. A week or so later I got a call from Dennis James who said he had spoken to Thompson who said he had talked to me. He told Dennis that after I had listened to him I agreed with him that site injections and lousy presentation were Beyeke’s downfall and his fourth place was justified. Furthermore Dennis was told that I was set to publish a full apology and would be backing Thompson up. Before I had time to reply to Dennis said, “Peter, we’ve been friends for 17 years and I know you would never say such a thing. I know you don’t flip flop, you just tell it as you see it.”

  6. 6. New federation you say? Go and check the contest schedule for Vince McMahon’s World Bodybuilding Federation (WBF) launched in 1990 and abandoned in 1992. Plus Wayne DeMilia’s Pro Division Inc. (PDI), which encompassed three contests only from 2006 through 2007. You can’t find anything? Exactly!

 So that’s my ten cents on the subject. To these peepers that Yellow Brick Road has all the makings of a Yellow Slick Road.

 

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