"Looks very misleading" - Bob Cicherillo confronted by Dennis James on 'pressuring' Ramy into retirement
Bob Cicherillo has been a unique voice in the sport for a long time now. However, he recently found himself at the center of controversy for his take on Big Ramy's physique after the Arnold Classic.
Despite coming into the Classic in much better shape compared to Olympia last year, Ramy finished in fourth place. Since his performance, critics such as Bob Cicherillo and Lee Priest have actively called for Ramy's retirement, stating that he has almost no chance of winning another Olympia. Ramy's training partner Dennis James took the opportunity to confront Cicherillo for misleading the audience and pressuring Ramy to retire in a recent episode of The Menace Podcast.
"You put two pictures up where you want to compare a 2013 lat spread with the Arnold Classic one where he’s clearly putting his arms back slowly starting to get into the lat spread ... This looks very misleading for people."
Bob Cicherillo responded stating that the fact stands regardless of the pictures used to compare Big Ramy's physique 10 years apart. He said:
"Go look at a picture of Big Ramy doing a lat spread or any pose for that matter and his first year in the league, then you compare it to the last show. The guy has two different physiques and not for the better. If you just compare Ramy’s physique on his own, he’s bigger, not as shapely as he was, his thighs are even bigger especially his inner thighs, his legs are like tree trunks,” said Cicherillo. “He’s missing half his lower back, arms are shrinking down, midsection is much bigger. It’s not even debatable that he’s not the same bodybuilder. The question is why and can he get it back? I think it’s an uphill battle for him."
Bob Cicherillo recently revealed that he does not believe Big Ramy can win another sandow trophy. This has left Dennis james confused, especially seeing as Bob is comparing Ramy's physique through the last decade, but Ramy has won two Olympias in the last three years. James said:
"Do we all know that his lower back is atrophied? Yes, but something was going on when he won the Olympia too and nobody complained. I don’t get it."
Bob Cicherillo and Dennis James argue whether Ramy was given a "chance" to compete for the Arnold Classic title
Upon being confronted, Bob Cicherillo immediately asked James on whether he had seen Ramy beating Samson Dauda. James replied:
"I never said that but here’s what I’m saying. I didn’t get a chance to, they never put them next to each other and battle it out. Ramy was much better than he was at the Olympia. Also, what I’m saying is he should have been compared a little more. That’s just my opinion and there’s a lot of others that have the same opinion."
Bob Cicherillo commented on how 'a lot of others' don't really have an eye for the sport, so their opinions are invalid. James responded to this by stating that Ramy at least deserved a chance to be compared to Samson Dauda.
"At least do that, give him the chance to highlight. I’m not complaining about the result. He was impressive to me, not so much on the screen because looking in the screen and what the people saw on pay-per-view wasn’t as impressive as what it was looking from front of the stage or from high quality pictures and videos. He was in shape, much improved but still put on the outside."
Ramy has publicly responded to critics asking him to retire and has clarified that he is still going to compete in top shows.