Help me understand..
A guy like Ronnie comes along and places dead last at the O but shows physical giftedness and potential but not yet taking what the other guys are. He starts figuring it out and becomes arguably one of the best ever.
Jay sees a young Phil and the full muscle bellies and sees the potential that could come once he gets on the same page as the top guys. Next thing you know consecutive Sandows.
Now.. a guy wins a pro card at nationals tomorrow night who is undersized compared to a typical pro and has a ways to go BUT his abdomen is already distended as much as any pro.. where does he go? Can he put on the necessary additional size without also increasing distention?
I haven't seen the american nationals in person but I was a superheavy at canadian nationals this year.
Lately our winners aren't quite the super-asthetic 195lbs or 215lbs guys with room to grow...more often they're already 220, even 230-240+ guys who've been pushing the envelope in every sense of the term to get to the top and kind of like you're alluding to, don't have a lot of headroom left.
Not always the case, i.e. regan grimes & chris bumstead are canadians but neither won their pro cards at our nationals, either...