Keone Pearson has called for the overall growth of the 212 division moving forward!
Keone Pearson has become the new face of Men’s 212 in recent years. He is the reigning two-time Olympia champion and has been doing his job advocating for the division. During a recent interview, Pearson shared his feelings on overall prize money and expressed that he wants the division back in the Arnold Classic.
“All we can do is, as me being a champ, is to make it aware that look, I want to invest more into 212. I want to push the category more and I would like to make the prize money a lot bigger.”
Pearson has taken over as the top of the 212 division. He took the big step forward in 2023 by defeating Shaun Clarida and was able to successfully defend his title.
The overall prize purse in bodybuilding continues to grow and Pearson wants to see this happen in 212. Athletes put in insane amounts of work during prep and the champ wants to see the money be worth it.
“I think we all deserve to be paid more always. We all do the same work, do the same stuff, take the same drugs and suffer and make the sacrifices.”
Keone Pearson Calls For Return Of 212 At Arnold Classic
Arnold Schwarzenegger has raised the Men’s Open prize money at his event to $500,000. Bodybuilding is adding more and more money to its biggest shows but 212 does not have the luxury of competing at the Arnold.
“I do think the standard is changing, even this year, and the level of competition is coming up. I think it’s very worthy of the Arnold, for sure.”
Pearson referenced recent Mr. Olympia champions Derek Lunsford and Hadi Choopan when discussing 212. He believes there is importance for the division to return to Columbus.
“I do wish they could put it back because I always like to go back to if it wasn’t for 212, there’d be no Hadi or Derek. These are two Mr. Olympia’s.
I do hope we can get 212 back in there but like I said, the only way I think we can do that is people like me step and just everybody else come together and perform. We need more people in the 212 division honestly to make that happen.”
Keone Pearson has plans for the 2025 season. He wants to appear in some capacity at big-name shows and continue to advocate for Men’s 212.
“I wanted to show face more at shows like Pittsburgh Pro, New York Pro, and I would love to try to increase the money for the 212 myself and try to help out.”
For more news and updates, follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
