NABBA invites pro athletes from rival federations to pro events.
The 2025 NABBA Pro World Championships, is taking place in Sydney, Australia, on June 8, 2025.
After several turbulent years within the NABBA federation, former NABBA 5X Mr. Universe Pro champion, Eddie Ellwood, has taken over the reigns as President of NABBA International.
Eddie Ellwood immediately restructured the federation, and immediately started working on putting NABBA back on the map as one of bodybuildings top federations.
The Australian affiliate of the NABBA International Federation also had some internal problems, which allegedly almost destroyed the federation in Australia.
The Australian NABBA Federation was rebuilt from the bottom up, and Maria Verginis was elected as the new NABBA Australian President.
Maria went straight to work and announced that the 2025 NABBA Amateur and Pro World Championships would be taking place in Australia this June 2025.
Accepting pro athletes from rival federations.
Immediately after the announcement of the 2025 NABBA Pro World Championships, Eddie Ellwood, and Maria Verginis confirmed that the pro event will be open to professional athletes from rival federations.
The invitation to pro athletes from every other federation has caused some controversy, especially in Australia, the country hosting the 2025 NABBA Pro World Championships.
For example, to move as a pro from another federation to Jim Manion’s Pro League, the pro league does not recognize the athletes’ previous pro status, and relegates them to an amateur until they earn their pro status within the pro league.
The NABBA Federation has made the bold decision to open its doors to pro athletes from rival federations, and let them participate in the 2025 NABBA Pro World Championships.
NABBA’s invitation will cause controversy.
The sport of bodybuilding has several federations, some dominate the sport, while others are happy just to orgaize a few shows, but one thing that they do not like to do, is lose athletes, or let them compete with other federations.
With NABBA accepting pro athletes from any other federation to compete at their 2025 World Pro Championships, this is going to be a worry for a number of people, especially show promoters in Australia, who represent several federations.
Focussing on Australia, there is Paul & Carol Graham, who are affiliated with the IFBB and IFBB Pro. This federation is the original IFBB Federation created by the late Joe and Ben Weider, which is now run under the presidency of Dr. Rafael Santonja.
The other company that runs events in Australia is the NPC and Pro League, which is represented by Tony Doherty. This private company, that organizes bodybuilding competitions, is owned by Jim Manion.
Tony Doherty was known for organizing some of the best professional events, The Australian Grand Prix, which was then replaced with the Arnold Classic Australia. According to sources, Tony Doherty and Arnold Schwarzenegger went their seperate ways, and Doherty has since not organized another pro event.
The professional athletes that compete with the IFBB Pro and Pro League, all sign contracts, that restrict them to only compete with the federation or private company, they signed for.
If any of these pro athletes compete with another federation, that is not sanctioned by the federation or private company they signed with, this can result in a suspension, fine, or even the lose of their pro status.
With practically no professional bodybuilding events organized in Australia, there is a great possibility that many pro athletes will cross over to NABBA.
Read More: Jim Manion’s pro contract allegedly restricts athletes from earning a living.
2025 NABBA World Pro Championships – Australia
According to the show promoter, Maria Verginis, the 2025 NABBA World Pro Championships, already has a prize fund of $40,000, which according to the information given to Evolutionofbodybuilding.net, should be increasing.
Eddie Ellwood and Maria Verginis, are hoping this event attracts professional athletes from all over the world. As already mentioned in this article, convincing pro athletes from other federations will be a very difficult task.
The majority of pro athletes will be scared of allegedly suffering negative consequences that will destroy their career if they break their contract and compete with NABBA.
On the other side of the fence, there are practically no pro bodybuilding events in Australia, meaning the majority of Australian pro athletes might decide to compete with NABBA, regardless of who they have a contract with.
It remains to be seen what will happen in the next few months. Evolutionofbodybuilding.net will continue to monitor this situation and publish updates.
