I'm not just like getting into bodybuilding to like do a couple shows
build my resume up so I can you know do some online preps or start coaching
like I literally am getting into this to change the whole sport to change the
complete like future of it and make history what I have in my hand it is
nine lbs 14 oz a baby boy no matter what I will be forever the myth
Sergio Oliva jr. that's right folks you know the name I think growing up with my
dad being big you know like I knew what big was I knew what the best was I just
wasn't gonna do bodybuilding unless I could be the best one day
I mean it's too bad that your father passed away way way too early but if he
would see this picture he will be laughing and he would be smiling and
he'll be the happiest guy in the world so I just want you to know on his behalf I
can tell you I know on my behalf how proud we are of you once I realized
I was really into bodybuilding and I wanted to pursue it to be a pro I
studied everything I read every book I could every encyclopedia of bodybuilding
that's out there all without really training I just knew that was something
I wanted to get into and then once I started trying to join gyms so my dad
was really going above and beyond to try and stop me from joining gyms and stuff
like that so I would try and sneak to gyms that I didn't think he knew about
and he found out about them why do you think he was so resilient
he did get you know screwed big-time by the sport you know times were different
back in the 60s and 70s and him being the only colored person to win an
Olympia let alone probably any shows besides Robbie Robinson
it was just rare and I'm and I think there's a lot that he dealt with and I
tried to explain to him that was 40-plus years ago and times have changed but
then I started to realize now that I'm older I think it was just more that he
grew up in Cuba he only went to third grade you know he's been working on
farms you know when he was a little kid escaped from Cuba where he was supposed
to go to the Olympics and he has this whole crazy elaborate story of his life
to get to America to become a Chicago cop be a three-time mr. Olympia to have
a kid the last thing you want your son to do is now do something not through
school so now me being older and me being more mature I can understand that
he went through all that I think he really just wanted me to be it he would
say it all the time doctor lawyer architect he would just name those
things and he was just so crazy about school but I don't think that he ever
realized that I was him and if he would have realized that I am
just like him with a lot of things he would have known that just school wasn't
my thing and it wasn't my dad's either
so I really didn't even pursue bodybuilding until 2006 I started so
late and it literally took me nine or ten years to figure it out
this one lightweight novice second place so that was a hundred and seventy
pounds so that was a hundred pounds from what I was last year so I'm hoping I
gained about eight to ten pounds in the last two years so I would have then
gained a hundred and ten pounds since I started bodybuilding
so this is one of my dad's trophies and this one and this one's so heavy I can't
even pick it up and I swear to God like I can't do it on video or you can't tell
but this trophy is so heavy I'll get I should film you holding it because it makes
no sense but it shows the quality of the trophies back in the day compared to my
Nationals trophy and with the stand with my Tampa and Olympia medals on it is not
even as heavy as this this thing is so heavy but I don't know what it's made
out of friggin marble yeah it's got like the Colosseum on the top like they used
to go all out it's just a completely different game I'm in a race where I'm
being judged by people's opinions and people's opinions can change and
depending on what era you're in the criteria can change and that's the
biggest thing is that in my dad's era they would have they'd be under one
single light a shadow a spotlight it created shadows underneath and casted
these like monumental statue figures and then as bodybuilding grew we started
tearing down the body individually this needs to be this kind of condition this
needs to be this kind of big this is the shape that we're looking for and then as
we've evolved and going through the eras now they want all of it they want
where yeah you have to be proportionally symmetrical but at the same time you
have to be so dry and so peeled in some areas that actually unless you were a
professional bodybuilder you wouldn't know that to have shredded glutes and
hams you're gonna have to lose something else
it's just how science works some of these guys are pushing under 3% body fat
so no matter what once you're pushing that threshold of dying on stage you're
that close to death something's gonna give and take and that's the hard part
of bodybuilding is you have to figure out how shredded do I get without losing
this or vice versa you know how big can I get without losing condition and
that's just not something they had to deal with back in the day
my goal in my career is I want to win the Arnold like that's something I
definitely want to win but I also understand that that's something it
takes time you're not gonna go into the Arnold and beat passed
Arnold champions like they're not all of a sudden gonna now not know how to do
their job this is like this is unbelievable let me tell you do in
Columbus 50 years ago I was posing here with your dad in Columbus Ohio me and my
friends over there we've been we've been driving to this show for a long time
every year I've driven here every year on my own from Chicago in Florida from
North Carolina just to come watch the show and and and it's really for the
real fans and I wanted to say everyone here tonight is a true fan of
bodybuilding with everything that happened this weekend and the catastrophes it
really showed us the difference between the fitness industry and the
bodybuilding industry and we are we are one and we are strong and we will always
take care of each other I don't even think about the Olympia I think about me
going to it this year and being in the top you know six I want to go from last
place to first call and go from last call to first call out but once you
start saying like I want to win the Superbowl
like there's so you gotta win a playoff game there's so many stages
before that and I think that's a big tell when someone's not all there in
their head when they're already thinking about the Olympia and you haven't even
one tough pro shows or the AFC Championship which is the Arnold you got
to win that first and I'm just trying to do those in stages so my five-year plan
would be to be an Arnold Classic champion I've got my own supplement line and
clothes are doing well and now I'm battling for that top three spot at the
Olympia