Phil Heath Was Shocked After Loosing To His 8th Mr. Olympia Title To Shawn Rhoden

It was a bit shocking for 7x Mr. Olympia Phil Heath when he was dethroned by Shawn Rhoden in 2018 Mr. Olympia. It's a fact that after Ronnie Coleman, Phil Heath appeared to be the most gigantic figure in bodybuilding and deserves to be praised because he has proved his mettle in the sport consecutively seven times. It all started when Phil was pursuing his graduation and involved in college-level sports. Unlike a typical college boy, he was very massive and used to carry a mesomorph physique. Phil Heath at that time was very much curious about the bodybuilding sport and when he met Jay Cutler for the very first time as a fanboy then Jay advised him to train professionally after being impressed by his physique. Taking Jay’s advice and implementing on that he made his debut in the 2009 Olympia and finished in the top 5, then in 2010 he came as the runner-up against Jay Cutler and finally in 2011 he defeated Jay Cutler and claimed his first Olympia title against the man whom he met to get an autograph as a teenager.

Olympia Reigning Era 

From 2011-17, Phil continuously claimed the title and was being regarded as ‘The Gift’. He came out as the biggest face of the industry and also went up commercially. Till 2017 Phil Heath was the biggest and the most dominant name in the bodybuilding industry and the only person who holds a record of 7 Olympia titles.

Loosing To Shawn Rhoden 

In 2018, everything was going on track for Phil but there was trash-talking between Phil and Shawn. 

On the final day, for the first 3 rounds it seemed that Phil would dominate but at the start of the fifth round Shawn Rhoden started to dominate, and with his paper-thin skin, muscularity, proportion, and conditioning, Phil appeared unprepared and also his abdominal muscle seemed bloated. At the time of the winner's announcement when it was declared that Shawn was the new Olympia champion and broke Phil's Olympia reign, Phil Heath was so disappointed that he left the stage out of shock.

How He Responded

However, Heath admitted that he was shocked at that time when the winner's name was announced and he didn't get his name as the winner. But Phil says that winning and losing are the two sides of the sport and one needs to get knocked down to succeed.  He also mentions that he doesn't have any regrets as he enjoyed the essence of being a champion by 7 consecutive times.