What Happened to Big Ramy After His Second Mr. Olympia Title?
UPLIFT IRON CLUB2021: A Second Sandow at the Peak of the Mass-Monster Era
By the end of the 2021 Mr. Olympia, Mamdouh “Big Ramy” Elssbiay had done what few enormous bodybuilders manage: turn freakish size into consecutive victories at the sport’s highest level. His first Sandow in 2020 ended Brandon Curry’s reign. The defense in Orlando a year later proved that the first win was not simply a one-night combination of favorable judging and good timing. Ramy had become the standard every other Men’s Open competitor had to beat.
The attraction was obvious even from the back of an arena. Huge quadriceps, sweeping lats, dense shoulders and a physique that could look wider than the men standing beside him made Ramy an unmistakable figure. But size alone never explains a title. The 2021 final required him to survive direct comparisons with Curry, Hadi Choopan and a rapidly improving field. He won while competitors with different strengths made the judging uncomfortable, particularly on shape and conditioning.
That context matters when looking at what happened next. A defending champion does not receive a permanent advantage from last year’s trophy. Judges compare the physique onstage, in the mandatory poses, on the particular weekend. Ramy’s immense muscle mass gave him a weapon that could not easily be copied, but it also created a demanding preparation problem: every part of that mass needed to look sufficiently detailed and balanced under bright stage lights.
The win was also bigger than a trophy photograph. Ramy had arrived at professional bodybuilding after working as a fisherman and training in Kuwait, and his championships gave Egyptian and wider Arab bodybuilding a highly visible champion. Fans could see both the impossible-looking physical scale and a recognizable personal journey. That combination helped make him an international star rather than merely a contestant who happened to win twice.
In retrospect, 2021 is the hinge in the story. He was still the man to beat, and his identity was built around being exceptionally big. The next challenge was not becoming bigger again. It was maintaining the complete winning package while rivals became more conditioned, more proportionate and more experienced. The same physical traits that had made him unbeatable in one comparison could become less decisive in the next.
2022: The Fifth-Place Finish That Ended His Reign
The 2022 Olympia in Las Vegas delivered the sharpest reversal of Ramy’s career. Instead of collecting a third consecutive Sandow, the reigning champion finished fifth. Hadi Choopan won, Derek Lunsford took second, Nick Walker third and Brandon Curry fourth. Four athletes finished ahead of the man who had carried the division through the previous two seasons. The placing was a clear change in the competitive order.
Bodybuilding fans often call such a result a collapse, but that hides how the sport works. An athlete can remain spectacularly muscular and still lose positions when rivals bring more complete packages. Conditioning, muscle separation, proportion, posing and consistent waist control all affect comparisons. Massive bodyweight does not cancel out weaknesses in the finished stage look. The judges evaluate the physique in front of them rather than the previous year's trophy.
Ramy still had extraordinary legs and upper-body size. The discussion around his placing focused on whether he had the same crisp, complete look that had made his earlier wins possible. When athletes are separated by small details, a back that appears less sharp or a transition that makes the midsection look wider can change the impression of an entire physique. Photos can document how a pose looks without establishing exactly why the appearance changed.
The fifth-place finish changed the expectations for his next appearance. Before the contest, opponents had to show they could dethrone the champion. After it, Ramy had to prove he could beat several men who had already passed him. A comeback would require more than looking enormous in a gym update. It would require winning a fresh set of mandatory-pose comparisons against a field that no longer treated his size as an automatic separator.
For ordinary lifters, the lesson is useful. Progress is multidimensional. In bodybuilding, more scale weight is not automatically better conditioning or better shape. In the gym, more weight on a machine is not automatically better muscle stimulus. Ramy's result illustrated the cost of judging a complex outcome by whichever single number looks most impressive.
2023 Arnold Classic: One More Test Against a Changing Field
Ramy did not immediately disappear after losing his Olympia crown. He entered the 2023 Arnold Classic in Columbus, a relatively quick opportunity to show that the previous December had been an exception. He looked formidable and reportedly weighed around 306 pounds onstage. The result, however, was fourth place: Samson Dauda won, Nick Walker finished second and Andrew Jacked took third. That ranking became an important marker in the next phase of his career.
The placing showed both a recovery of competitive intent and the limits of that recovery. Ramy was still capable of standing with elite Open athletes. Yet Dauda and Jacked, who had been behind him at the 2022 Olympia, now finished ahead of him. The division was not waiting for the former champion to find his best look. Taller, flowing physiques and new combinations of mass, conditioning and structure were demanding attention.
Fans could reasonably see encouraging signs in his Arnold appearance. A sharper look in some poses and a willingness to compete again mattered after the Olympia disappointment. But the scoreboard was not ambiguous: he had not reclaimed the top position. The show underlined a distinction between looking improved compared with your last outing and looking better than the current best athletes. Those are separate standards, even when the improvement itself is real.
At this level, posing is not a theatrical extra attached to muscle building. A front double biceps exposes arm shape, lat flare and waist control. A side chest rewards thickness and leg separation. Rear poses demand detail across the back, glutes and hamstrings. An athlete carrying Ramy’s mass has to present all of those angles convincingly. The audience may remember the most impressive still image, while judges assess the full sequence.
The Arnold ultimately became his last confirmed competitive appearance through 2026. That makes it an important final reference point rather than a forgotten consolation result. He did not leave the stage because he had suddenly stopped being a remarkable bodybuilder. He left after a period in which the competitive demands of the Open division were moving, and he had not yet found a version of himself that could put him back at number one.
Why Big Ramy Stopped Competing After 2023
In September 2023, Ramy confirmed he would skip that year’s Mr. Olympia. His explanation was measured: he wanted to be smart about when to compete and whether he could present a better version of himself. A former champion can generate headlines simply by entering a show, but an entry is not the same thing as being prepared to win it. Ramy was signaling that he did not want to return merely to make up the numbers.
He also stayed out of the 2024 Olympia. That extended the gap from one missed championship to a genuine competitive hiatus. The public conversation naturally filled with guesses about age, training, recovery and motivation. None of those guesses changes the recorded results. What can be established is the competitive timeline: no Olympia appearance in 2023 or 2024, and no new contest placing after the Arnold Classic.
Time away is particularly complicated for an athlete whose brand was built around extreme mass. A full professional prep demands months of training, food management, posing, travel and a final phase where appearance becomes the scoreboard. Maintaining a huge physique in ordinary life is not the same task as peaking it for judges on a particular day. Being able to train hard does not mean that another contest preparation is the right personal or professional choice.
Ramy’s position was different from that of an emerging pro. He already owned two Olympia titles. He did not need a low placing to establish that he belonged in the sport’s history. That creates room for a rational calculation: is another contest likely to add something meaningful, or is the athlete better served by training, supporting the sport and building a life that does not revolve around a single date on the calendar?
That distinction is worth remembering when the word retirement appears in bodybuilding. Stopping contests does not require stopping the gym. A former champion can continue to lift, look enormous, work with sponsors and remain a public figure while declining the physical and logistical demands of the stage. For Ramy, the gap became a gradual transition rather than an overnight disappearance.
The 2025 Comeback Tease—and Why It Never Reached the Stage
The story did not end with a quiet absence. During 2025, Ramy spoke publicly about a possible Olympia comeback and at one point put his chances at roughly eighty percent. He said he wanted to return only if he could address the issues that had prevented him from showing his best physique. The percentage was a statement of intent and confidence, not an official contest entry or a guarantee.
That distinction got lost in some of the excitement. A former two-time champion saying he might return is irresistible bodybuilding news. Fans immediately imagine the comparison photos: Ramy beside the current leaders, the old mass-monster standard tested against a new generation. But a comeback requires concrete steps—preparation, an entry and finally a physique onstage. Until those happen, the story is a possibility rather than a result.
He did not compete at the 2025 Olympia. The anticipated return therefore remained a tease, and the last confirmed contest stayed the 2023 Arnold Classic. That does not make his earlier comments dishonest. Elite athletes can sincerely plan a comeback and later decide that the timing, readiness or personal cost does not make sense. It does mean the public should avoid turning an optimistic interview into an accomplished competitive fact.
From a training perspective, the challenge is easy to underestimate. Looking muscular in a casual gym clip and looking contest-ready are radically different tests. A stage return would have required not only retaining his trademark mass but also restoring enough condition and presentation to compete with athletes who had been building momentum while he was away. In Open bodybuilding, the last few percentage points of preparation often determine whether an already extraordinary physique wins or slips down the order.
The comeback conversation also exposed the emotional pull of unfinished business. A fifth-place title defense is not how a champion wants his competitive story to end. Yet the desire to rewrite the ending can conflict with the discipline to judge the present honestly. Ramy’s choice not to appear in 2025 may disappoint fans, but it is more informative than pretending that a promise of a return automatically creates a winning version of the athlete.
2026: A Different Future, With the Same Bodybuilding Legacy
By April 2026, Ramy’s language had changed. Asked about returning, he said he did not think he would be back and that he was looking toward his business interests. He also spoke about continuing to support bodybuilding and accepting that other athletes eventually take their turn onstage. Those remarks are the clearest public indication that he no longer expects another competitive chapter, even if a future personal decision can never be ruled out with absolute certainty.
His physique did not vanish with that change in priorities. In May 2026, training clips and updates showed him still lifting and carrying striking muscular size. Footage included cable chest work, rear-delt movements, lateral raises and triceps training. None of that proves he is secretly preparing for a contest. It shows something simpler: bodybuilding can remain part of an athlete’s daily identity after competition stops being the central objective.
The legacy is unusually concrete. Ramy won the sport’s biggest Open title twice, in 2020 and 2021, and brought a distinctive Egyptian presence to a stage historically dominated by a small group of countries. His mass was not merely a viral talking point; it was competitive muscle that helped win championships. The fifth in 2022 and fourth at the 2023 Arnold do not erase the Sandows. They complete the picture of a career that reached the summit and then encountered a stronger, changing field.
His later years also offer a useful lesson about how to judge bodybuilding careers. A champion’s peak and his final contest are not required to be the same moment. Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler and many other greats have careers that include losses, changing physiques and decisions about when to stop. The complete résumé is more meaningful than the final scorecard alone. Ramy belongs in the history of the modern mass-monster era because he won at its highest level, not because every subsequent appearance matched that peak.
For everyday lifters, the takeaway is not to copy the weight, the diet or the competitive pressure of a 300-pound Open bodybuilder. Copy the longer view: build patiently, take feedback seriously, understand that a physique is more than one measurement, and let goals change when circumstances change. Big Ramy’s story after his second Olympia title is a fall from the throne, an attempted reset, years of comeback speculation and finally a move toward life beyond contests. It is not a story about somebody ceasing to train. It is about a champion deciding that the stage no longer has to define everything.
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