Ronnie Coleman shocked the bodybuilding world after winning his first Mr. Olympia title in 1998 when 6X Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates retired and Paul Dillett collapsed on stage. Coleman emphatically stole the Olympia from Shawn Ray, Nasser El Sonbaty, and Kevin Levrone who were all jockeying for first place for years. Ronnie came in huge AND ripped. Dorian was probably happy he retired at the time because Ronnie’s size and conditioning up to that point was unmatched.
Ronnie Coleman had it all in the beginning stages of his career, including mass and detail, but nothing was more impressive than his back. Even today’s Mr. Olympia, Phil Heath, cannot match the size of the muscle bellies and the symmetry that Ronnie displayed in his back.
However, Ronnie Coleman took the mass thing way too far and you can see how his midsection blew out of control towards his latter years. It’s a shocker he won the Olympia so many times with dozens of bodybuilders in the mix who displayed massive size but better cuts. Just take a look at the timeline and you can notice that his most dominant forms were during his first two Olympia captures.