Jose Raymond confirms he is eyeing a bodybuilding comeback: “I feel like I’ve got something left”
Jose Raymond, also known as the Boston Mass, was an up and coming Men’s 212 bodybuilder with a lot of promise. His rising star came to a sudden and unfortunate stop in 2018, when he had to retire due to injury. Now three years later, it seems Raymond is ready to make a bodybuilding comeback. In our latest GI Exclusive interview, Jose Raymond goes into detail about his plans for making a Men’s 212 bodybuilding comeback.
The last time we saw Jose Raymond compete was in 2018. He did a selection of shows including a fist place victory at the Dominican Republic Pro. He also landed fifth place at both the Arnold Classic and Mr. Olympia that year. If it wasn’t for an injury that made it impossible for him to safely compete – we might have seen him become a Men’s 212 Olympia champion.
Perhaps his prospects of becoming an Olympia champion aren’t quite over after all. Starting in 2020, there were rumors circulating that Jose Raymond was training for a bodybuilding comeback. While it was never 100% confirmed, by early 2021, Raymond was open about the idea of coming back – though hadn’t announced anything specific.
That’s why we wanted to reconnect with Jose Raymond in our latest video interview. Not only to recap his impressive career before retirement – but to address the rumors and possibility of Raymond making a Men’s 212 comeback.
During our conversation, Jose Raymond confirmed that he is looking to make a comeback but hasn’t decided exactly when or what show he will be competing in. Right now, he’s focusing on training and improving his physique. Once he feels that he’s ready – he’ll start locking in specific dates for a show.
Most importantly, Jose Raymond opened up about why he feels now is the right time to make a comeback. Raymond explains that his original retirement was forced upon him due to injury. At one point, he could barely even walk because it. Raymond had no idea if he would ever be able to return to his peak condition after recovery.
Now three years later, he has recovered fully and sees a lot of potential in his ability to build a threatening physique. If he had known recovery would have went so well – he would have never retired and instead called it a hiatus. Regardless, he now feels confident that he can do some real damage on the stage. Not only that – but he still has the drive and the passion to keep competing.
“When I retired, I retired due to injury. Nobody wants to retire not on their own terms,” Jose Raymond states during our interview. He continues:
“So now that I’m feeling better and able to do exercises that I haven’t done in years. And my body is responding. I feel like I have something left. And I just love competing. I’ve always been that guy that competed multiple times a year… I enjoyed it so much that there’s nothing different today. I still love the whole preparation for a competition. The whole challenge of making myself freaky. I want to be a one percent-er, you know?”
It’s clear that the injury is the one and only thing that led to Jose Raymond’s retirement. Now he feels confident in his ability and the freedom to train safely again. This means nothing is holding him back from returning to the stage. Whether the time away from competing and training will hurt him in the long run remains to be seen at this moment.
For now we’ll simply wait and look forward to his return to the competition stage. He can be an interesting threat thrown into an already stacked division for 2021. We’re excited to see how it all plays out.
You can watch Jose Raymond go into more detail about his retirement and comeback in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
