Samson Dauda reflects on his 2023 Arnold Classic victory

Samson Dauda reflects on his 2023 Arnold Classic victory

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 is now qualified for the 2023 Mr. Olympia competition, which will take place November 2-5 in Orlando, FL. Dauda reflected on how it felt to win the 35th edition of the historic competition.

“I believed I could do it,” said Dauda when asked by James how he felt about his chances. “I think it was after the Olympics that I really started to believe I could win it.”

Dauda finished sixth at the 2022 Olympics, which was won by Hadi Choopan. The favorite for the Arnold Classic in the eyes of many was Nick Walker, who finished in second place. Dauda felt that participating in a show three months later actually served him well because of the adjustments he made between the two shows.

"I'm always better the second time around. I knew I would be better enough to do it."

That feeling was confirmed when Dauda came out in the first callout and was placed in the middle by head judge Steve Weinberger. After Dauda took this place, he did not want to give it up.

"I thought, 'No, please don't move me anymore. I'm fine here,'" he said with a laugh.

After the win, many fans and experts compared Dauda to eight-time Mr. Olympia Lee Haney because of their similar shape and structure. Haney himself even admitted it, which Dauda thought was a big deal.

"You're talking about an eight-time Mr. Olympia, someone you watched win long before you had any idea what bodybuilding was, and he says, 'Wow, that's a crazy figure.'"

Dauda spoke more about his frequency of competitions, his past before bodybuilding and how he made Fouad Abiad cry, among other things. Subscribe to the Muscle & Fitness YouTube channel to catch every new episode of TMP every Sunday at 3:00 pm Eastern Time.