This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the third and final Europa Show of the year-- the Europa Super Show in Dallas, TX. This is the largest and best attended of Ed and Betty Pariso's fitness weekends. Lately, I've been remiss in my role of gossip monger extraordinaire, so I decided to go a little meshuga this week and I sought out the finest gossip there was to be had.
Hany Vs Curry
Brandon "The Prodigy" Curry made his pro debut a few weeks ago at Tim Garner's PBW Tampa Pro. This debut was greatly anticipated by both the fans and his sponsors, BSN and Weider/AMI. For this contest, it was a well-established fact that Curry was working with contest prep guru, Hany Rambod. Through the grape vine, I heard that for some unknown reason the Curry/Rambod collaboration broke up 8 weeks prior to Tampa. So, when I ran into Rambod backstage in Dallas, I just had to get the scoop! Lucky for you, my loyal readers, I have the chutzpah necessary to ask the tough questions!
Hany's version goes a little something like this: 8 weeks prior to the contest, he asked Brandon to fly out to him for two days of gym training and evaluation. This is something that Hany says all of his athletes routinely do (including Jay Cutler and Phil Heath). Instead of agreeing, Brandon claimed it didn't make sense, financially, for him to put out that kind of money to go see him. Hany says this showed Brandon's lack of drive and motivation. Hany felt like this was a very reasonable request, and since Brandon was making decent money with both BSN and
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| The Yuckmouth Yenta and Hany Rambod |
Weider, he didn't understand Brandon's reluctance to spend the money to come see him. Later, when Hany's assistant had to request progress pictures multiple times, enough was enough and Hany made a phone call to Brandon. He basically told Curry that he didn't feel like it was working out and that he felt he was more worried about Brandon's career than Brandon. He expected Brandon to argue or ask for another chance, but instead Brandon simply said, "OK". According to Hany, this was all the verification he needed to know he had
made the correct decision to terminate his coaching relationship with Curry.
Now, it wouldn't be fair to Brandon if I stopped there. After the Europa show was over, I approached Curry and his lovely wife, Brandy Leaver, to find out their side of the story. Not surprisingly, they had a VERY different story. In fact, Brandie says SHE was the one who crafted Brandon's contest diet at the request of Hany. When she sent him a copy of the diet, he approved it and NEVER changed it throughout the length of the prep period. She said it shocked both her and Brandon how little Hany was involved with Brandon's prep. When Hany called and asked Brandon to come up to see him at 5 weeks out (yes, they both claim it was 5 weeks; not 8) they were both skeptical about what Hany could do IN PERSON that he couldn't do over the internet or over the phone. Brandon actually said that Hany was planning on having him stay in a Casino hotel and that the trip would cost him well over a thousand dollars. He couldn't justify the expense and told Hany how he felt. Brandon revealed that by this point in time he no longer felt like he wanted Hany's help but he was afraid to offend his sponsors by dropping the diet guru. Hany terminating the arrangement, himself, was exactly what both Brandy and Brandon felt was the easiest solution to an uncomfortable situation.
Essa Obaid gets Magazine Contract?
Maybe one day, but Obaid didn't have a signed document at the conclusion of the Europa Super Show and, as luck would have it, Rx Muscle was able to get a post-victory interview with the stone-faced champion. That sentence sounds relatively drama free, but the preceding events were anything but!
Team Rx Muscle attempted to get an interview with Obaid after the prejudging ended early Friday evening, but was, instead, intercepted by George Farah. Farah informed Dave Palumbo that Essa was already signed to exclusive MD contract; a signing that, according to Farah, took place a week earlier. Normally, this would have been the end of the story since Dave and the entire Rx Muscle staff are very respectful of exclusive athlete contracts. After all, this is how these guys earn their living. But this was no normal situation. At the Saturday afternoon Europa Pro Finals, Essa's wife (and manager) approached Dave and asked him if he'd like to interview Essa. Dave informed her that he would love to but he understood that Essa was not allowed to talk to anyone except Muscular Development. Expressing her frustration with Farah and MD, she revealed that Essa did NOT have a signed exclusive contract and that they would both love to do an interview with Rx Muscle (as website they both enjoyed visiting).
Prior to her approaching Dave, I witnessed what looked like a heated debate between Farah and her. I can only speculate that George was trying to convince Essa not to do the RxMuscle interview and his wife was upset by this. Since I don't speak Arabic, this is only a supposition on my part. What I do know for a fact is that immediately following her heated discussion with Farah, she had a lengthy phone conversation with MD owner, Steve Blechman, who after failing to convince her to NOT interview with Rx Muscle (despite there being no signed contract) actually hung the phone up in her face. I don't imagine that Essa's wife speaks Yiddish but if she did, I'm sure she'd think Blechman acted like a real putz. All I know is that I was thoroughly impressed with the professionalism exhibited by Essa's wife in light of the high pressured sales pitch she was receiving from both Farah and Blechman.
Until next week, that's all the gossip that's fit to print! Please email any breaking MUSCLE GOSSIP tips to [email protected]
