Paul DeMayo - Interview With Paul “Quadzilla” DeMayo

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Paul DeMayo Interview

By Trevor Smith

T.S. So, why don’t you introduce yourself to the readership base.

P.D. Jeez….well I go by the name of one Paul “Quadzilla” DeMayo 1994 National Champion and I.F.B.B. Pro

T.S. Well Paul, you dropped off the face of the earth shortly after your Nationals victory. I know there were a lot of rumors about some sort of legal trouble and possibly even jail time. Let’s clear that up once and for all right here. What the happened to you?

P.D. Hmmm.. I guess my biggest mistake was that I married the WRONG girl. That pretty much was the stupidist thing I ever did.

T.S. Please go into detail

P.D. Well in May of 1995 I was selected as the invite to the Mr. Olympia. Although I was very honored by that, I did not want to do it. I was under contract with Met Rx and they were the big sponsor of the show that year, so they were allowed to have one of their athletes compete in the show. I was selected and although I was honored I did not think it was a good career move to make. I spoke with Scott Connelly about it, but he felt it was the best move for me to make and since I was under contract with Met-Rx, I read between the lines and did not want to shoot myself in the foot so to speak, so I agreed to do the show. Now I had no delusions about winning the Mr. Olympia, all I wanted to do was be judged fairly and I was assured by some prominent officials that I would be. I trained my butt off for that show and got 11^th place, and if you look at the tape of the 1995 Mr. Olympia you will see that I was better than a number of other athletes that placed ahead of me. That took a lot out of me. I spent a lot of money getting ready for the show and I trained my butt off like I stated before and was really bothered by the fact that I was going to have to go through this whole “paying the dues” situation like I did on the National level. After that show, I felt like I was pissing my life away. I wanted to have nice things and accomplish other things in my life, so I thought it would be best if I took a year off. I still loved bodybuilding and did guest posings and appearances, but I did not have the time or the energy to compete

T.S. Damn, Paul I am so psyched because there is so much to talk about and I don’t want to forget anything. Let’s stop right now and go back to where it started. I can remember watching your career as a teenager (and using you as a measuring stick because we were close in age) when you were the next big thing and also when you hit the national level. Christ I remember you losing the Jr. U.S.A. to Robert Rothrock (there’s a name from the past) when I was in my second year of college. Then I remembered when you beat an unknown kid the next year at the Jr. U.S.A’s in 1991. What was his name…..oh yes, Kevin Levrone. A few weeks later he turned the tides on you and won the Nationals. Which brings me to my point. On the national level today, it seems like there is a “pay your dues” philosophy going on. Did you think that with Paul DeMayo the “pay your dues” rule didn’t apply as you spent a few years at the National level losing tough decisions. Now I am not saying you should have won those years, but I am wondering if you feel that the unspoken rule didn’t apply to you.

P.D. No, not at all. You have to understand that the guys I was losing to over those few years went on to become GREAT bodybuilders in the Pro Ranks. Kevin Levrone, Flex Wheeler, Mike Francois, Chris Cormeir, all these guys were my competition on the National level. I think you would have to agree that there probably has never been an amateur crop like that before or since. Now I agree to a certain extent with what you are saying, but the fact of the matter is, you have to come in dialed in and in shape. I wasn’t dialed in any of the years that I lost to those guys. Some years too small and flat, some years too big and full. You definitely have to earn it.

T.S. So this brings us to 1994. Let’s talk about some of the things you did differently for that show. You had been coming in too small or too heavy. All of a sudden at the 1994 Nationals, we see the emergance of a Paul DeMayo that is not only shredded to the bone, but bigger and heavier than he ever was! What did you do differently?

P.D. Well I changed a lot of things. With my diet, for the first time I incorporated liquid proteins. I never did that before, and they made a big difference with allowing me to get in larger amounts of protein and maintain my muscle mass even though I was losing fat. I also had a complete mind-set change. I made a decision that the 1994 Nationals was going to be my show and that I wasn’t going to change my physique to please anyone else. My attitude was “this is what I am coming in as and tough if you don’t like it”. My focus was through the roof and that was in no small part due to the fact that I was signed by Met-Rx and that relieved a tremendous amount of the financial burden. Up until that point I was working a 9-5 job like everyone else and was on a tight budget too. Now I was able to focus strictly on the training. That had the biggest impact. Plus I was also older and finally getting the muscle maturity I lacked in my younger years. Most of the guys I competed against were always older than me—whether they want to admit it or not—and had the advantage of time on their side. The muscle has a certain look when it has maturity and I was lacking that because I was a young kid.

T.S. So you show up at the ’94 Nationals. What did you weigh when you stepped on the scale?

P.D. I believe it was 253lbs. I weighed on a Friday night and just because of what the number read on the scale, I heard people behind me saying: “He’s off…way off..too heavy.” They couldn’t believe that I could possibly be that big and heavy and still in shape, so it was a great kick in the butt to them when they saw what I looked like on stage and won the whole show.

T.S. This brings me to a quick side note. Why don’t they weigh the professionals before each show the same way boxers have a weigh in. They did it in 1988 at the Mr. Olympia and had everyone dressed in boxing robes. It was really cool and the fans loved it. Of course, the bodyweights that year were all in a realistic range. Berry DeMey was 226lbs., Strydom –although way over-dieted—was 229lbs, Lee Haney was 243lbs. Now days, they don’t ever dare weigh the pros before a show, yet they love to print erroneous weights. They’ll say Lee Priest competes at 225lbs when in reality Lee is no more than 210-214lbs. on stage. Flex will be listed at 245lbs. when he is half the size of what Lee Haney looked like weighing 2 pounds less. Ronnie is said to be 278 pounds on stage when in reality he is 264. It is just fucking stupid and at the end of the day all it does is make the fans more disassociated with the sport. If you have a kid competing at 205lbs. and he is the same height as Flex and he is told that Flex weighs 250lbs, he will think that he can never achieve that level whereas if he is told that Flex weighes 232lbs, he will be better able to associate that with something that is attainable. Is Ronnie Coleman any less impressive if his actual weight is told rather than giving him an extra 20 pounds. I don’t think so.

P.D. I agree and I am all for weigh ins. If nothing else it would help crush a lot of the insecurties with these guys.

T.S. O.K. this brings us to 1995. What were your competitve plans for that year

P.D. Well I had planned on doing the N.O.C. which as you know most of the new pros will choose as their first show. As it turns out, Met-Rx was going to be the title sponsor of the Mr. Olympia that year. Every year Joe Weider allows one special invite to the Mr. Olympia and since Met-Rx was sponsoring the show, Joe was going to allow Met-Rx to submit the special invite.

T.S. Who were the Met-Rx athletes at that time that were being considered for the invite?

P.D. I think at that time there was myself, Milos and I think even Ronnie Coleman—pretty ironic huh! Anyway, it was me that was picked.

T.S. How did you feel about that?

P.D. Look I was flattered and all, but I was looking at my career and I knew that it wouldn’t be a smart move. I knew that they were not going to give me a fair placing because the attitude is “This is the Mr. Olympia! And you must PROVE that you deserved to even be in this show in the first place” Since I did not legitimately qualify for the show, I knew I would get shafted and I did. I was conveniently placed 11^th because it would mean that I would have to re-qualify for next year. It was a total waste for me career wise. I could have bought a ticket and had a better view of the show. I felt like a jerk up there. And it really put a sour taste in my mouth. I had just gone through 6 years on the National level and now I felt I was going to have to “pay my dues” all over again. It just took the starch out of me.

T.S. So what did you do.

P.D. I decided to take some time off to gather my thoughts and focus on all the other things I was letting slide because of the demands of bodybuilding.