FOUAD RECOVERY UPDATE / TONIO NEARLY QUIT BODYBUILDING / NECKZILLA 2026 AT RISK? / RBP NEWS

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:08]Yes, guys. Sookie from BTN TV. This is RPB News, 29th of May, and this already looks a bit different because of course my co-host Fouad isn't with me today.

[00:00:21]I still want to do this episode because there's a reason behind it, and I want to explain why Fouad is away. Now, originally the plan was that we weren't going to do any more episodes until Monday due to this situation, but I thought, you know what? You guys who support the channel, who support Fouad, probably deserve and want to know maybe why Fouad's not here today. And to be fair, this is some really good news, and you can probably tell from the thumbnail of today's episode what I'm talking about. So, I'm going to read you a message from Fouad earlier today because he went to see his surgeon when it comes to his current bicep injury, of course, as we know from the motorcycle accident last year. I'm going to read you the message because, like I said, originally he wasn't able to do today, and he can't do this weekend, but I want to share you some of this good news because I know you guys do care. So, let me read you the message, and Fouad's message to me was today, "Well, at the moment, no surgery yet. They did nerve conduction to see if I was healing, and they got medium strength signal to my bicep and a light signal to my delt."

[00:01:38]In his words, "It's not earth-shattering news, but it's still something." So, very, very good news there, the fact that his surgeon did see there was medium strength coming from his bicep, and of course a light signal from his delt. And look, anyone that does follow through it has followed his training videos he's been sharing on his socials, his YouTube channel, not giving up, not giving up hope that maybe one day he would get the feeling back on his arm, the one that I forced the like I said, he had that tragic accident on his motorcycle and the fact that the surgeon has indicated there is some feeling, there is medium strength coming from the arm.

[00:02:22]You know what? That is why I want to do today's episode. Obviously I have some of the stories I want to talk about, but I was like, why wait until next week?

[00:02:28]Let's actually share it and actually, you know, wish him well as well. I know obviously it's a very been a tough period and not knowing if he would ever get full use of his arm, but the fact that the surgeon gave that news, he says it's not earth-shattering in my eyes.

[00:02:48]Look, it is big news. That is positive news. He's been very humble about it.

[00:02:52]He's been very quaint about it. For me, that is excellent news. So, I wanted to share that first.

[00:03:00]Okay. Look, like I said, we haven't got Fura today, but I still want to drop you the news and hopefully if you guys did do like this one, then what I will ensure that if there are ever days when me and Fura can't get a recording out, I will still try and get the news out because like I said, I do sit on a lot of news and do want to make sure we do share it with you. So, first news I want to share, Behrouz Tabani. Behrouz Tabani, the re- return of Behrouz this season and look, I want to share this update that he shared on his Instagram channel earlier today as he shared a physique update.

[00:03:38]And what I'm going to do, I just want to bring up this update of his because as we know, he is currently 3 weeks out from his return show and he is heading to the Empire. Now, let me just share my screen with is I'm taking a little bit longer because I'm still waiting to load and let's just show this update because we all remember what happened last year.

[00:04:02]I'm sure you guys can see it now. What happened last year where he only arrived to Olympia what on the week of Olympia so he only had very little time to acclimatize to compete at his first Olympia. Now, this is 3 weeks out.

[00:04:13]Obviously still coached by Milos but he is going into the Emperor and if we look at some of the competition he's going to be up against, I believe Mark Hector from UK is going to be there. There's a few of the European hitters but really Behrooz is the man to beat and rightly so aiming to do an early show like this because get the early qualification and therefore he can then go through his visa application to ensure that he gets out to the US earlier than before. So, I think the plan will be to try and get out there a couple of weeks in advance.

[00:04:45]Hadi is also coached by Milos and the plan will be to get him out as early as they can as well to acclimatize within the Vegas environment. But really what we're looking at from Behrooz, I mean I know he's not showing too much of of his legs. I don't think he has done recently. He's been has been just the board shorts. There was there was a little update before but I really believe that for Behrooz it's going to take it's going to take something very, very special to topple this guy when it comes to the Emperor Classic. Again, it's my question for yourself guys is the real question we have to ask is Behrooz at Olympia without a doubt. A little bit question is with people out of the top 10 like Myles Leask which is not confirmed if he's doing Olympia yet.

[00:05:30]Nick Walker still yet to qualify and not confirmed if he is doing the show in 2026 despite of the my reports being that he could do Texas. Nothing is confirmed as of yet. Good Vito is out of Olympia. So, that's potentially three out of top 10 aren't doing the Olympia.

[00:05:45]And with people like Urs who's also out, who was just on the outside of top 10 Olympia, do we feel Behrooz has the best opportunity to break into that top 10?

[00:05:58]I'm keen to hear from you guys, if you guys think that is the case. For me, I think Behrooz has the greatest opportunity out of the guys who are currently out of the top 10. Probably him and Krizo joint first when it comes to breaking into that top 10. And And then followed by people like George Hutchinson. But I guess I'm basing this off the fact that if he can get an early qualification and get that early visa, I know there was not too much of a difference when he won in when his qualification over the by pro last year.

[00:06:29]But hopefully now he's gone through that process and now he's been successful, if he can get out there earlier, I would imagine we will see a far superior Behrooz than we saw last time.

[00:06:40]Now, the next update, guys, we spoke about Nick's Zilla uh earlier this week.

[00:06:44]I want to share another update because I did reach out to the team to really find out when can we expect to see Rubio back on stage? Rubio, sorry.

[00:06:55]When can we expect to see him back on stage? Now, the update I had from his team are a couple of things. I'm going to share this bit of information for you guys that's not been shared anywhere else.

[00:07:05]The hernia surgery took longer to recover than expected. And that has slowed down the progress to potentially look at an early show to ensure they qualify for the Olympia. Now, as of right now, no plans are set at the moment because they're still waiting for his body to how it responds into this prep. Now, when I When he When I When I'm told this, in my eyes, this pretty much rules out some of those US shows. Texas, Tampa, Atlanta.

[00:07:40]I think potentially, if he is going to do a show before the Olympia and going off the messages I'm getting from the team, I would not be surprised if it ends up being one of the last ones and there was only one European qualifier to the Olympia after those US shows because the other ones after after this one is a qualifier for 2027, it would be the Austria show. So I think there's a potential chance that Rubiel ends up doing Austria to try to qualify for the Olympia. But once again, going off these messages, I think it's still 50/50 whether he does attempt to try and qualify for the Olympia this year or maybe he actually looks at a 2027 qualification and that could be a show after the Olympia. We know there's plenty of qualifiers in Europe or probably Europe to qualify for next year.

[00:08:33]But I guess I'm going to going to follow what the team again. They're keeping me updated, but once we know more, I will definitely share more information with you guys. Now, I'm going to stop sharing the screen here because I'm going to share some information with you guys and this news landed to with me yesterday. And unfortunately, I can't go in detail about it, but it might interest you guys. And that is a fact that there is a major show that's taking place in 2026 that has been canceled. That will not be going on this year. Now, you guys would say, "Well, what's the point of sharing it if you can't disclose the show or the name of it?" Look, obviously I can't disclose the name because it will be announced next week. But I'll let you guys know that next week there is going to be a major announcement of a show that's supposed to happen in 2026 that has been canceled and will return in 2027. Now, no doubt every major outlet will cover this once the announcement has been made because it is a big deal and it's going to impact a lot of competitors but I know plenty had already eyed up this show. So, major show canceled for 2026. The announcement, I believe, should be the middle of next week. If any of you guys follow up you'll follow up probably if you're watching this, you guys will not be able to miss it on Instagram because it's going to be shared by everybody. It's going to be shared by every media outlet on YouTube and every other social media because it is a big deal and that announcement will be next week.

[00:10:04]Now, guys, very little bit of stories uh today obviously I'm going to be aiming to try to cover some more tomorrow because of course we got Legion, we got the Ultimate Classic, we got a few others. I want to finish off with one of the guys who's competing this weekend at Legion and that is Tony Burton. I did an interview with Tony uh the other day and I think I should have clipped it on Instagram. I don't know if you guys have seen it, but he talked about how he nearly quit bodybuilding because of the tragic loss of his mother. Now, I've going to show you the clip and this clip, the reason I'm showing it is because it kind of shows another side of the bodybuilder. We're so used to seeing them either the videos of training or on stage, but this really shows the human side of Tony Burton, especially his faith, how it was actually dampened and I want to share this clip with you guys and get your thoughts as well. I hope it gives you guys another insight of Tony Burton, the bodybuilder. So, I'm going to play this clip.

[00:11:06]>> Cuz we were supposed to do the Arnold.

[00:11:08]Everything happened around that time, bro, I was like, "I'm done." Like, I don't want to bodybuild. I don't want to I don't want to do anything. We were just sitting in the hospital day in day out. I didn't go to the gym. Wasn't eating. Me and my older brother were just in the hospital. We just sitting there watching him like bedside with her and just looking at that image that was just like it was it was heartbreaking.

[00:11:27]Finally, when she ended up going, my cousin the pastor and I comes up to me. He he was like, "Yo, you have this look in your eye. What's up?" I was like, "I'm done. Like I don't believe in God, like none of that's real." He was just pretty much like, "This isn't something where you can go and get revenge on someone. The only revenge you can take is with the enemy, which is, you know, the devil. And he's going to want to pull you away from God. He's going to want to pull you off your path and that's nothing your mom wanted for you." And that's all he had to say and I was like, "Okay." I hit up my coach, he came down for the funeral and I was like, "Hey, we're prepping."

[00:12:01]>> Tonio Burton from the recent interview and look, this is actually something that I resonate with because I lost my mom to cancer in a very quickly and this was during the COVID time. I remember how angry I was at the whole failure of a system and how I questioned so much and it also impacted me just like how it impacted Tonio. I'm sure it impacted many of you guys who've gone through a similar loss. But there really is something there that Tonio showed and indicated that is what his mom did not want him to quit. His mom would not have wanted him to give up bodybuilding because of a loss, a tragic loss of his mother. She would not have wanted it and what happened was the fact that that turned around and for him to flip a switch and to go back into training, get back in the gym and find a whole new motivation going into the New York Pro which led to the win which obviously led to second place at the at Pittsburgh. Look, he was beat by the bear Mike Thurston, but the fact that he still turned up and of course now he's going to be a legion winning Madrid easily get the win at that show. No disrespect to any competitors and then go into Olympia, fight for top six place. But I want to show you that clip of Tonio and once again, it showed a different side of the the bodybuilder. But look guys, I know it's not the normal episode you expected without Phil Heath. I did try my best here, but the most important part thing is that great news about Phil Heath and he will be back on Monday. If you guys are happy for me to share the news this weekend, which might be just by myself, then do let me know in the comments. Otherwise, thank you for joining us. That is 29th of May, 2026.

[00:13:37]Don't forget, like, subscribe, share.

[00:13:40]We're very close to 10,000 subscribers.

[00:13:44]It's a It's been a long road. I mean, I wouldn't say a long road. It's been about 6 months, but we're hoping that we can try and break into that 10,000 very soon. And then, of course, keep climbing up those subscribers and, hopefully, keep getting the views up. Thank you again, guys. Enjoy Friday.