by Christian Duque
So I don’t know if I have permission to share the interview that Nick Walker did with Tony Doherty for NPC News from the Pittsburgh Pro, but I will let my publisher decide whether or not it’s included. I would think that they would be happy with it because it’s going to get them more views, but who knows what’s in their head. What I will say is if the video isn’t included you can go and check it out for yourself on YouTube and you will see that many of my points hold water.
So what exactly am I writing this article about? Well let me just put it this way. I will never forget when Ronnie Coleman made that now classic expression about Jay Cutler when he accused him of smoking crack. Obviously The Big Nasty was not suggesting that the Boston-based bodybuilder was in fact smoking illegal substances but he was more so making the point that he had to be absolutely delusional to think that he stood a chance of beating him. And in the same fashion I use that now famous catchphrase to describe the demeanor of The Mutant Nick Walker when interviewed by Australian bodybuilding legend Tony Doherty relative to toppling Derek Lunsford.
Tony is a legend in the gym world, the contest promotion world, and has done so much for bodybuilders all throughout the Australian continent that the title of legend is completely justified. I have to say though that maybe this interview would fall into the awkward category as he really should not have interviewed both Nick Walker and Derek Lunsford at the same time because he had questions for one guy while the other guy stood around aimlessly. And the guy who stood around aimlessly the most happened to be Nick Walker – not the reigning Mr Olympia Derek Lunsford, but I will talk about that in a separate article.
This little 5-minute interview has so many gems in it that it actually justifies two different Iron Magazine articles. I think this is a first after nearly 800 articles that I have written for this publication. I cannot resist writing these two articles. This article happens to be about comments made by Walker more than anything else.
It’s one thing for Nick to mouth off on an interview where it’s just him and the interviewer. I mean those types of interviews happen all the time in the fitness industry. They happen in boxing, mma – pretty much any type of athletic endeavor or performance sport. This is just the reality of interviews. It’s also very common with politics and music too. You have an interviewer and you have someone being interviewed – end of story. But in this particular situation the interviewer, Tony Doherty, had two guys that were essentially adversaries on at the same time. Now they’re not adversaries because they don’t like each other. Clearly they have good rapport and clearly they’re on good terms, but they’re both gunning for the same title. They both want to be Mr. Olympia. The difference is, or I should say the glaring difference is, Derek is already the champ and has already won the biggest title in the sport. Nick Walker is somewhat on a decline where he was sidelined because of injury and could not compete at the Olympia and also could not compete at the second biggest show, the Arnold Classic in 2024. Now he’s going into the New York Pro and after a less than stellar outing guest posing at the Pittsburgh Pro he may not even win that either. So in reality you’ve got one guy who is very much on the way down and another guy who’s very much at the top. That’s just reality.
Now take into account the fact that Nick Walker has never defeated Derek Lunsford in the history of his career. This is significant because he stood there next to Tony basically saying that he was going to take the Sandow from the guy that currently holds it. Derek, much to his credit, didn’t start laughing and did not stoop down to what Ronnie Coleman would have said in a similar situation some 20 years ago when he accused Jay Cutler of smoking crack. Derek, ever the professional, simply just looked at Nick In somewhat of disbelief. Instead of addressing what many have called an absolutely delusional comment by Walker, Lunsford focused on talking about what a busy year he has had, how important it was for him to have made history claiming the Olympia in two divisions, and also talking about how proud he was to be a father. All the while Walker stood there facing the interviewer’s back with very little to say.
It’s that awkwardness that unfortunately Tony probably couldn’t see at the moment because he was focusing on whoever he was asking the questions of. Perhaps his cameraperson was able to see it but it’s very unorthodox for a camera person to interrupt an interviewer mid-interview to let them know that it doesn’t look right. That just doesn’t happen. So the reality of the matter is that you have an interview where Nick Walker is standing in sheer boredom for extended periods of time with nothing to say and nothing to do while Lunsford fulfills the role of bodybuilding’s ambassador to the world. Meanwhile Derek isn’t even acknowledging Nick’s statement – rather – he is talking about positive things in the sport and positive things in his reign. So this makes for a very very whimsical type look for a guy whose nickname is The Mutant. His nickname after this interview could very well be The Dumbass.
What’s also quite frankly asinine is the fact that Nick is talking about defeating two guys in Derek and Hadi who have won the biggest and the second biggest current bodybuilding shows. And Nick is going into the third biggest bodybuilding show where neither Derek or Hadi will be present. In other words Derek won last year’s Olympia and Hadi won this year’s Arnold Classic. And Nick is now trying to win the third biggest title where neither one of them will be present. For him to say that he is going to win the 2024 Mr Olympia is absolutely ludicrous. And on top of that you add to the fact that he has an injury (which we still don’t know if he’s 100% recovered from) and he looks like a pile of shit at a guest posing appearance in Pittsburgh just one week shy of that New York Pro. So in reality his nickname could be The Dumbass or The Idiot because only an idiot would scoff at the question of who’s going to win the New York Pro given all these factors. I think Tony asked a very legitimate question and Nick should have answered it with a little bit more humility given all of the shortcomings that he faced in the past and that he may face in the future. He spoke as if he had just literally walked off winning the Arnold Classic or placing top three at the Olympia. That was a long time ago. This is now and that was then. Again this is why this interview is so classic. It really makes Nick look like an absolute fool.
And I have to say Derek, who has nothing to prove, just completely wiped the floor with a mouthy competitor who tried to intimidate him with his sheer size. I mean just the sheer concept that Nick Walker put on 20 lbs of added muscle mass given the fact that he’s coming off of an injury and looks like a pile of crap at the biggest guest posing appearance of 2024 is ludicrous. This interview will go down in the record books as being one of the dumbest exchanges between an interviewer and a guest in the history of bodybuilding and the fact that it’s being put on NPC News Online is just par for the course. It’s like the cherry on top.
Here you have the most serious bodybuilding media organization running this piece of trash interview. And it’s nothing against Tony. The only thing Tony could have done differently was faced each competitor equally and given each competitor his undivided attention. That may seem like a massive mistake but in reality it’s a stylistic difference of opinion between Tony and myself in terms of how to conduct an interview. I personally don’t like doing interviews with more than one person because of the fact that unless there’s questions that both can answer and it’s a conversation amongst the three you get what you have here. But that aside Tony’s questions were to the point, he gave the guest sufficient time to answer, and he kept things lively. That being said, this interview was an absolute train wreck and it’s the first time in a long time that I’ve written an article just about an interview. In fact , I’m not just going to write one article, I’m going to write two. Because the second article is going to deal with the fact that Derek Lunsford totally owned the interview even though he was on the receiving end of some pretty juvenile attacks from a competitor who may think he’s on his level but in reality is a second call-out guy.
Nick Walker in 2024 is a second call out (at the Olympia) guy. He may not think so and his coach may not think so but the writing’s on the wall.