Arnold Amateur USA: Former promoter Mike Davies reveals more.
The 2023 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur USA event has been recently cancelled. Former promoter Mike Davies reveals more about the situation and what can be done to fix it.
Editor’s Note:
• All allegations against Brian Powers and World Championship Events Inc., have been made by Mike Davies during the interview with Dave Palumbo.
• Brian Powers was contacted by Evolutionofbodybuilding.net for a comment, he acknowledged our questions, but simply replied “No Comment.”
The news of the 2023 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur USA event being cancelled shocked the bodybuilding community. One of the most popular amateur events is now gone.
In a recent report by Evolutionofbodybuilding.net, Brian Powers, Executive Director of the Arnold Sports Festival explained what led to this decision.
Brian explained, “We were disappointed with early indications of athlete interest in the 2023 Arnold Amateur and decided to take a step back and work to improve the offering.
“The Arnold Classic is bodybuilding’s premiere invitational hosted by its greatest champion.
“If Amateur registrations are not meeting expectations it is a clear indication that I need to take it off line for a period of time and revamp the competition to meet the high standards of the brand.”
Many did not agree with this decision, especially Mike Davies, the man that promoted the event since 2007.
Read More: 2023 NPC Arnold Amateur has been postponed indefinitely
Mike Davies and the Arnold Classic Amateur USA
RXMuscle.com’s Dave Palumbo recently interviewed Mike Davies, and he shares what he thinks was the downfall of this historic event.
Mike Davies has been involved with the Arnold Classic Amateur event since 2007, when Jim and Bob Lorimer approached him to promote the Arnold Amateur event.
Mike and Bob Lorimer have been involved in promoting bodybuilding events together for over 22 years, building a great business relationship together. Mike was the perfect person to start the Arnold Amateur USA.
Mike was the man that worked behind the scenes, making sure everything was perfect for the athletes and fans.
The first event was exclusive to NPC athletes only, with no pro cards available to be won at that time.
As the event turned from a simple bodybuilding event to a worldwide expo, Mike Davies took total control of the Arnold Amateur USA.
The Arnold Classic Amateur goes global
The Arnold Sports Festival was one of the most popular bodybuilding and fitness events of the year, since its creation in 1989. From a simple bodybuilding event, this turned into a full blown expo with numerous bodybuilding and fitness events, plus the addition of amateur events.
Eventually, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Lorimer’s wanted the event to be organized internationally.
The Arnold Classic Europe was launched in 2011, organized by the IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja and his wife Nieves. The home of this event has been in Spain, organized in various cities across the country.
Till today, the Arnold Classic Europe is still the biggest Arnold Classic event, outside of the USA. The amateur event is very successful, with approximately 700 to 900 athletes registering for the event.
The Arnold Sports Festival Europe and the Arnold Classic Europe Amateur event has already been confirmed for 2023.
Following the success of the Arnold Classic Europe, events started to be organized in Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Asia and the UK.
International events affect the Arnold Amateur USA negatively
While the Arnold Classic brand started to grow internationally, the same could not be said for the amateur version in the USA.
Mike Davies explained during the interview, that international athletes now have more options to compete and don’t make the trip to the USA for their event.
Before the split in 2017 between Jim Manion and Rafael Santonja, Mike explained that the number of athletes registering for the amateur show in the USA was very high. With International events gaining popularity, this affected the Arnold Amateur USA negatively.
Mike confirmed that Dr. Rafael Santonja used to send over 250 to 300 athletes per year, representing IFBB internationally.
After the split in 2017, the NPC Arnold Amateur USA took another negative hit, as the athletes that were associated to the IFBB and IFBB Elite Pro could not compete within the NPC and therefore not compete at the Arnold Amateur USA, which is affiliated with Jim Manion.
Mike Davies explained that being the promoter of one of the biggest amateur shows in the world, did not mean he made a ton of money.
Mike confirmed that he only made money from athlete registration fees. When asked about all his employees, Mike confirmed that the majority of them were volunteers.
Mike revealed that he had a very good relationship with IFBB President Dr. Rafael Santonja, he alleged that the IFBB took a share of the registration fees till 2017. At the same time, Mike failed to mention the IFBB also supplied the judges for the amateur event, which meant the IFBB took care of the travel and hotel costs for their judges. There might have been profit sharing with the IFBB, but Mike had 250-300 more athletes competing thanks to them.
What Mike failed to explain is that Jim Manion is also always paid a sanction fee for every event he is associated with.
Many believed that Mike Davies, being the promoter of the event, had a share of the gate money from the event, but Davies confirmed that all the gate money went to Classic Productions, the owners of the Arnold Classic brand.
What happened to the Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer partnership?
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Lorimer had a business partnership that started in the late 70’s. After retiring from the sport of bodybuilding, Arnold Schwarzenegger teamed up with Jim Lorimer to promote a number of bodybuilding events.
Finally in 1989, history would be made when the first edition of the Arnold Classic was organized; Rich Gaspari would go on to win this event.
After the success they had in 1989, Arnold and Jim would continue to promote the Arnold Classic together until 2021, the partnership lasted for over 45 years. Jim Lorimer’s son, Bob Lorimer, would replace his father and be named President of Classic Productions in 2015.
Between 2021 and 2022, several major changes took place at the Arnold Sports Festival headquarters. Allegedly, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Lorimer family ended their business relationship.
Arnold would continue promoting the Arnold Sports Festival on his own. The company Classic Productions would be replaced with World Championship Events, Inc. Schwarzenegger is the Chief Executive Officer of World championship Event, Inc.
Allegedly, there was a reshuffle at the Arnold Sports Festival headquarters. Brian Powers was then named Arnold Classic Executive Director, and several employees were allegedly replaced or dismissed.
With all the changes taking place behind the scenes, a number of athletes are now seeing the Arnold Classic event as a second tier event. Numerous bodybuilding and fitness athletes are not happy that some divisions are being excluded, while at the same time, a number of other sporting events are being added to the expo.
Arnold Sports Festival USA has a difficult future – Mike Davies
Mike Davies confirmed that Arnold Schwarzenegger is the sole owner of the Arnold Classic franchise, after he bought out the Lorimer’s share of the company.
When Arnold took over, he immediately brought in Brian Powers, who is now the Executive Director of the Arnold Classic.
It’s no secret that with Brian at the helm, a number of major changes have taken place at the Arnold Sports Festival.
Mike Davies believes that Brian is not the right person to take the Arnold Classic brand into the future, with some of his decisions allegedly affecting the event negatively.
Immediately after Brian took over, Mike Davies alleged that Brian kicked him out with a simple email message, refusing to speak to him face to face. This happened after the 2022 Arnold Sports Festival ended.
In the interview, Mike alleges that Brian Powers informed him that the running of the Arnold Classic Amateur event was illegal. Mike continued to allege that Brian insisted that the amateur event was illegal, and he and Bob Lorimer were bringing in large sums of money from a event that nobody knew about. This left Mike Davies speechless.
Mike could not understand what Brian was talking about, as he confirmed that at every competition, Arnold Schwarzenegger himself would walk on stage and congratulate the new Arnold Classic Amateur Champion. Mike insisted during the interview that there was nothing “secret” or “underground” about the amateur event. Mike also insisted that the event could not be illegal as all the gate money to the amateur event went into Arnold and Lorimer’s pocket.
Mike was not happy with how he was being treated by Brian Powers after running the event successfully for over 15 years. “Brian knows nothing about the sport of bodybuilding,” is what Mike had to say about Brian.
Contrary to the rumors circulating about how Mike Davies was removed as promoter of the event, Mike confirmed that Jim Manion had nothing to do with him being removed as promoter of the amateur event. Mike alleges it was Brian Powers who let him go.
A struggle to promote the 2022 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur USA event
The promotion of 2022 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur event was an uphill battle, Mike alleges that nobody from the Arnold Classic office helped promote the event.
Mike alleges that Brian Powers called him, and asked him if he was speaking to Jim Manion or Gary Udit about the event, Dave confirmed that he was speaking to them to give them information about the 2022 event, since there was nothing being promoted.
Mike alleges that Brian was not happy and started yelling at him, insisting that if he continues, he will never work with the Arnold classic franchise again. Mike explained that he was livid after hearing this, telling Brian that he has no idea who he is talking to.
The Arnold Sports Festival has over 3.5 million combined followers on their social accounts, plus we cannot forget about Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has a combined amount of over 50 million followers on his social media accounts.
With all this social media power, one would believe it would be very easy to promote the Arnold Classic Amateur events, and in return get hundreds of amateur athletes registering for the event. But this did not happen, according to Mike Davies.
Mike alleges that the promotion for the 2022 Arnold Classic Amateur event started at the last minute. It was alleged that the promotion started in November 2021, only four months before the event took place in March 2022.
With all the problems he was facing, Mike confirmed that he did not want to let the athletes down and would continue working in 2022 to see the show through.
Unfortunately, the number of amateur athletes that registered for the 2022 Arnold Classic Amateur was too low to keep the management happy, and the partnership with Mike Davies ended. The new promoter for the 2023 amateur event was Gary Udit, but this did not last long either.
Mike Davies explains the possible reasons for the cancellation of the 2023 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur
A number of factors possibly contributed to the downfall of the 2023 NPC Arnold Classic Amateur event according to Mike Davies.
During the interview, Mike alleges that one of the main reasons is having to pay a number of employees to run the event.
With Mike Davies out of the picture for the 2023 event, this means that all of Mike’s loyal volunteers would not be helping at the event.
Gary Udit is the new promoter for the 2023 amateur event, meaning he would have to pay for all the travel and hotel expenses of his team to run the event. The new expenses would surely trickle down to World Championship Events, the company that runs the Arnold Classic,
These new expenses could have contributed to the cancellation of the event.
At the time of publishing this article, it was alleged approximately only 30 athletes registered for the event, being one of the reasons for the cancellation. Mike does not see this as a problem, as he confirmed that approximately 150 athletes usually register at the last minute.
Mike continues to put all the blame on Brian Powers, who he insists does not have the bodybuilding experience to run the event, which in return contributed to the failure of Gary Udit and the cancellation of the event.
Mike believes that the Arnold Classic will never be the same again, with the Lorimer’s out of the picture.
When asked about the future of the event, Mike alleges that nothing has been confirmed for 2024 and alleges no contract has been signed, alleging that the entire event could possibly move out of Ohio.
Mike believes if the Arnold Sports Festival is relocated to another city, the city of Columbus, Ohio, will suffer financially, as the city thrived when the Arnold Sports Festival took place. Hotels and restaurants were full, thanks to the athletes and fans that traveled to the city for the event.
A new event on the horizon?
Mike Davies explains that Bob Lorimer can still contribute to the sport of bodybuilding and fitness.
With all the experience and connections Bob and Mike have in Columbus, Ohio, Mike believes that Bob Lorimer can easily create the “Columbus Sports Festival”. This would fill the void the Arnold Sports Festival might leave if they do relocate.
Mike’s theory would make a lot of sense if the Arnold Sports Festival did actually move to a new location.
If the Arnold Sports Festival did relocate, Bob and Mike could easily create a new super event, not having any problems getting all the support they need from the city they lived their entire lives in.
The city of Columbus, Ohio, would suffer a great loss if the Arnold Sports Festival relocates, but if a new event such as the Columbus Sports Festival is created, the community would welcome this with open arms.
Mike Davies believes only Arnold Schwarzenegger can fix the situation
When Dave Palumbo asked what can be done to improve or even save this event, Mike was quick to answer that the only person that can change the situation is Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
Mike explained that before the pandemic, nobody would make decisions for Arnold, it would be just between him and the Lorimer’s.
Jim and Bob Lorimer would take care of all the business behind the scenes, while Arnold would be the face of the competition.
Mike explains that the atmosphere has changed drastically, with people like Brian Powers taking charge.
Arnold Schwarzenegger loves bodybuilding, and nobody can deny this. Whatever direction the Anrold Sports Festival takes, its origins will always be bodybuilding.
Mike explains that if they want to purely make money, they can easily move the event and make more money elsewhere, but if they want to put the athletes first, the situation has to change, with the help of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Washington Post articles
Not mentioned in the interview, many in the industry are speculating that Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to stop working with Jim Manion and the NPC, due to the articles that have been published by the Washington Post in recent weeks.
Read More: NPC & Pro League Investigated by the Washington Post
While there might be pressure on Arnold Schwarzenegger to rethink his future with Jim Manion’s NPC and Pro League, Arnold would have taken a more drastic decision in regards to cancelling an event.
If Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to cut all ties with Jim Manion, he would have also cancelled the Pro League event, which is also owned by Jim Manion.
At the time of publishing this article, the Arnold Classic Pro event and the expo is still on schedule to take place next March.
