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William Bonac should have won the 2025 NY Pro. Martin Fitzwater should have won the 2024 NY Pro. Both athletes lost to Nick Walker. In both cases, the media all but ignored both runner-ups. Going into the 2024 NY Pro, Martin had only won the Detroit Pro and had never competed at the Olympia. In 2025, Bonac was ignored (as usual) despite being a Mr O runner-up, 2x ASC champion, and having had impressive competitive records in 2024 and 2025. Although many people challenged the 2024 decision, who’s to say the same will happen today with the 2025 NY Pro? In any event, I don’t write articles based solely on what everyone else is saying, though I don’t ignore it, either. This is my point of view, peppered with some public opinion – here and there.
So for starters, I’m not heartless to the fact that Nick had a very heartbreaking defeat to Derek last week in Pittsburgh. I know how hard it is for competitors to work towards a goal. Maybe I don’t know what it takes with regards to a diet, supplement regimen, and hardcore training in the gym, but I know what it’s like to invest time and effort into reaching a goal. Whether it’s getting an LSAT score or passing the bar exam. Everyone has goals that they set up for themselves and when they fall short of reaching them, clearly it is not anything desired or easily processed. And I understand that for Nick, unlike for me taking the bar exam, he has thousands – if not tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of fans all around the world. They are looking to him to accomplish greatness. This is an individual who at one point in time was in discussions to be the best bodybuilder in the world. He won the second biggest title and he was knocking on the biggest title’s door. Then he got injured. Then he missed two Olympias back to back. He broke the dormancy by winning in 2024 in a very controversial manner against Martin Fitzwater at the 2024 NY Pro. Then he finally competes in 2025 against Derek and falls short. https://www.ironmaglabs.com/2025/nick-walker-wins-2025-new-york-pro/