When Dorian Yates won six consecutive Mr. Olympia titles, he created an unbeatable legacy in his time. But it also caused trouble for a lot of his rivals, as Yates appeared to be an impossible summit for the other contestants to scale. His rival, Kevin Levrone, the 59-year-old IFBB Hall of Famer, recently reflected on how his rivalry with one of the greatest bodybuilders spanned out and how Yates helped him become the best version of himself.

Often touted as an uncrowned Mr. Olympia, Kevin Levrone is an IFBB champion who also happens to be a musician. While he participated in 68 IFBB competitions the bodybuilder never beat his arch nemesis, Dorian Yates.

As a throwback video by Muscle Mind Media showed, Levrone once stated that he hardly could believe it when he ranked second for the very first time in his life. In fact, Levrone was hopeful of winning the Mr. Olympia title soon enough. However, he confessed that things did not go as planned upon the arrival of Dorian Yates. Levrone recalled, “I felt like I had a chance to possibly be Mr. Olympia one day, but I had no idea that Dorian Yates is gonna come back and consistently grow and get bigger and bigger throughout the next six years.”

Levrone further went ahead to explain how Yates had motivated him by giving a tough rivalry that helped him become a better version of himself. He revealed, “Dorian Yates was that guy that pushed me to the next level to get bigger, trained a little hard because I trained with the vision in mind to beat him.”

On the other hand, the main point of concern for Levrone was that he could not predict how Yates was going to look, and it was hard for Levrone to mentally prepare for it.

Levrone explained how Yates’ pictures signaled that the competition was over

Levrone confessed in the short clip that he could never predict Yates’ next move. He said, “The thing about him was you never know what he was gonna look like.” Then he added that the pictures of Yates taken by Chris Lun would only come out a month before the show. “You look at the picture and you are like, ‘damn! it’s over already.’ You know the guy gained another 12 or 13 or 15 lbs of pure muscles,” Levrone stated.

He also explained how hard it was for him to prepare both mentally and physically to deal with the pressure he felt from being a competitor against Yates. However, it was also what pushed him to get better, “You know, it was a lot of grit, a lot of hardcore stuff going on mentally for me, as well as physically as trying to figure out how to get bigger. I would always have a vision in mind and try to figure out what he was doing, try to figure out what I could do to get better.”

READ MORE: 6X Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates Once Revealed the Struggles He Faced During Prime Bodybuilding Days

Much like Flex Wheeler, the uncrowned Mr. Olympia, Kevin Levrone also had to battle with his nemesis, Dorian Yates. Although he did not win the title, he still got immense popularity love, and support from his fandom. Do you think Levrone should have won at least one Mr. Olympia title? Let us know in the comments below.