Paul Dillett shares some stories from his bodybuilding past and explains why he thinks bodybuilding today is dead.
There’s nothing new about comparing today’s bodybuilding to eras past. But during our conversation with Paul Dillett, he highlighted a comparison in a different way than purely on the quality of physiques. He looked at the sport as a whole. The celebrity status of top athletes, the physiques, the revenue – all of it. In our latest GI Exclusvie interview, Paul Dillett explains why he thinks bodybuilding today is dead.
Paul Dillett makes one thing clear during our conversation about bodybuilding today – he strongly believes there are talented hard working bodybuilders on stage today. That being said, he also believes that in spite of that, the sport itself is not the same as it used to be.
Surprisingly, his statements don’t focus on the physiques of bodybuilders today. Instead, it focuses on the overall reaction to athletes and the business opportunities that exist versus earlier eras. Specifically, in comparison to the era during Dillett’s prime.
The word that Paul Dillett keeps coming back to in the conversation is “special.” He believes that today’s athletes aren’t regarded as special as they once were. He details his time guest posing and making public appearances. He states that there is far less guest posing in general compared to earlier eras.
Dillett used to get so many offers for guest posing – that he had to turn some down and choose specifically which countries and locations he would prefer. He recalls doing more than one guest posing per day over the weekends and then following up with multiple days of guest posing back to back through the week.
Paul Dillett speaks directly on this during our conversation:
“There’s no guest posing anymore right? I don’t even know if there is but… I mean, I used to – I pick and choose which show I wanted to guest pose for, who I wanted to guest pose for, what country I wanted to be in. It’s not like that today. Well, because number one – I tell people bodybuilding is dead. Bodybuilding isn’t what it used to be.”
This seems to be less about criticizing today’s physiques and more about criticizing how the sport works. This isn’t even a slam on the leagues. Instead, it seems like a product of the times and technology changing. With so much information being available online and on social media – the demand is being met every single hour of the day. This waters the entire sport down.
Certainly there are new opportunities made available due to social media. We’ve covered the various ways bodybuilders have found financial success without even having to step on the stage. But what Dillett seems to be lamenting here is a loss of a “special” quality. Where are the Lebrone Jameses and Michael Jordans of the sport? Where’s the Michael Jackson of bodybuilding today?
Perhaps it’s just a different kind of fame and popularity. Perhaps simply Paul Dillett isn’t seeing it himself first hand. Regardless, as far as Paul Dillett is concerned, the bodybuilding he knew is dead. He has no qualms making that statement. The bigger question is whether or not today’s generation of fans and athletes agree.
You can watch Paul Dillett’s full comments and a few other bodybuilding stories in our latest GI Exclusive interview segment above!
