“There’s no coming back” – King Kamali says Big Ramy took ‘too many diuretics’ at 2022 Mr. Olympia

Shahriar Kamali, popularly known as King Kamali, is the latest to criticize Mamdouh ’Big Ramy’ Elssbiay for his performance at the 2022 Mr. Olympia. The former Mr. Olympia competitor slammed the Egyptian for his fifth-place finish at the event. Dissecting the result, Kamali claimed that Ramy took ‘too many diuretics’ ahead of the event.

Retired IFBB pros King Kamali and Jose Raymond were discussing Big Ramy’s outing at the Olympia when the former said that the defending champion was “flat.” Kamali stated that the 2x Mr. Olympia champion took diuretics, which causes bodybuilders to flatten out for 48 hours. He explained that there’s “no coming back” after the drug settles and starts showing its effects.

Speaking in an Rx Muscle interview about Big Ramy, King Kamali said:

“Okay, in layman’s Terms, it means he took too many diuretics. That’s what it breaks down to. Simple, easy, Japanese-ey. He took too many diuretics, and he could not catch up with it. Now, for those people who don’t understand ‘can’t catch up with it,’ let me explain it to you from a personal experience.”

He went on to explain why the use of drugs could go wrong at Olympia. Kamali added:

“It doesn’t matter if you sit down and eat 16 pizzas and 15 cakes back-to-back when you’re flattening out from diuretics, you’re going to be flat for at least 48 hours. That’s it. There’s no coming back from it. You can’t catch up with it. So, whatever he did those last three days, he could not keep up with it. Then, we can add in the cortisol and the stress and all that stuff.”

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Former pro says Big Ramy got worse as the Olympia progressed

Following King Kamali’s suit, Jose Raymond also spoke about Ramy’s lack of form. Raymond claimed that he was surprised by how Ramy’s close friend/training partner Dennis James couldn’t notice issues with the defending champion’s physique.

He said:

“I think he got bamboozled by seeing only Ramy every day for so long, and I bet he was in shape. I bet he was lean. His glutes were crazy. He’s huge in person. So, to tell me that he looked like the Olympia champ the day before or the days leading up to it is misleading because how did Dennis [James] whose very smart — not see the missing lats. How did he not see the 18-inch left triceps and the 23-inch right arm. How do you not see that.”

He went on to state that Big Ramy got worse as the event progressed. Raymond said that Ramy looked great on stage, but his poses were bad.

Raymond further added:

“It just made things look worse because he wasn’t as wide as normal and then having wider hips — it just fell apart. Even from the front, like look how much smaller that left arm is… He [Big Ramy] looked great just standing there, but each pose he did, it just got worse, worse, and worse.”

With the comments, Shahriar Kamali and Raymond joined a series of others to openly criticize Big Ramy. Many, including former Mr. Olympia champions Jay Cutler and Arnold Schwarzenegger, had come out to state how the defending champion was off his form at the show. They were all in praise of Hadi Choopan, who clinched the title.