Jose Raymond Dropped by Muscular Development After Successful Season

[Musclepapa John]

After winning the 2014 Europa Phoenix, New Zealand Pro; second at Korea Pro and third at Prague and Olympia weekend one of the winningest bodybuilders on the scene Jose Raymond loses his contract at Muscular Development magazine. Sounds like the above statement could be as likely followed by a question mark as a statement of fact. Yet, Jose announced his free-agent status at RxMuscle with the statement, "I'm one of many recently relieved of my duties over at MD. I'm looking forward to endless opportunities in the bodybuilding world & my first stop is here at RX with Dave & Chris who have both been huge friends & supporters of me since I turned pro!" Tune in to hear Jose in conversation with Dave and Aceto on Thursday on the Iron Debate: http://forums.rxmuscle.com/showthread.php?129487-**BREAKING-NEWS**-Jose-Raymond-on-Iron-Debate-Thursday-8-45-pm-(EST)-on-RXMuscle-com

[Young Gotti]

interesting, not only does he win but his personality is awesome....i really enjoy watching his videos vs a lot of other guys who have no personality

[Musclepapa John]

Positive attributes of Jose within the muscle media from my view:
-Great & winning physique consistantly within top five 212 pros in the world.
-Engaging personality with fans, promoters, officials and others in the industry. Not the least bit arrogant with a grounded sense of who he is and what he has to offer. Jose has a sense of humor and is the same guy on and off camera. Nothing fake.
-Self starter working hard on and off stage.
-Doesn't cover up constantly for media assignments as some to with hoodies, etc during training and other media events. Isn't overly concerned with how he appears in industry media work wanting to be the last word on content released as is often the case with top male bodybuilding athletes.
*Jose is the perfect guy to represent a wide variety of brands whether it be supplements, tshirts or a fitness publication. I'm looking forward to his continued success and this isn't a paid commercial endorsement lol.

[Poker face Ace]

Jose is a good guy in my book. Even though it's a business move on MD's part, it was very rude imo to let go of him. The guy has not disappointed

[poser]

Thanks guys, I always appreciate being appreciated!! As poker face stated, it's a business decision, nothing personal!this move will allow me to reach a broader audience & that I'm grateful for!!

[Ironbrian82]

fuck md, I hope rx looks after jose, hes a good guy, blechman is I wanker, good luck jose

[davidcua]

Positive attributes of Jose within the muscle media from my view:
-Great & winning physique consistantly within top five 212 pros in the world.
-Engaging personality with fans, promoters, officials and others in the industry. Not the least bit arrogant with a grounded sense of who he is and what he has to offer. Jose has a sense of humor and is the same guy on and off camera. Nothing fake.
-Self starter working hard on and off stage.
-Doesn't cover up constantly for media assignments as some to with hoodies, etc during training and other media events. Isn't overly concerned with how he appears in industry media work wanting to be the last word on content released as is often the case with top male bodybuilding athletes.
*Jose is the perfect guy to represent a wide variety of brands whether it be supplements, tshirts or a fitness publication. I'm looking forward to his continued success and this isn't a paid commercial endorsement lol.

That's a pretty "interesting" move from MD. My question is : Why ? Given that he was one of (if not the most popular Athlete on MD, (Maybe Evan is close), MD shot a lot of videos content of Jose, and everybody on MD including myself enjoyed these vids. Too bad for MD.

Now he's a free agent! I'm sure Jose will make even more money without MD.

Looking forward to watch the Iron debate

[Joel's hamburger]

What's laughable is that despite being a longtime MD athlete Jose never had a feature cover on their mag

[Chris Aceto]

That's a pretty "interesting" move from MD. My question is : Why ? Given that he was one of (if not the most popular Athlete on MD, (Maybe Evan is close), MD shot a lot of videos content of Jose, and everybody on MD including myself enjoyed these vids. Too bad for MD.

Now he's a free agent! I'm sure Jose will make even more money without MD.

Looking forward to watch the Iron debate

sometimes people make dumb decisions. I cant imagine, regardless of "how much" money MD is hemmoragging letting go someone who

won 4 shows in 2 years ( so that rules out the idea of keeping winners)
has kick ass videos ( kills everyone else's videos on the Marcus Welby site)
is funny! ( where others try to be)
is honest and humble
has huge fan base

Summary: Dumb move though I can hear aplogists for MD " It was a biz decision and you don't know the internals of the biz!!!" ( guess what...neither does the person or persons who will make that claim lol!)

[Triple-H_2005]

Echoing what Chris said above, as a "business decision" it makes very little sense.

Jose is a great bodybuilder and seems like a good guy, hopefully he'll land somewhere that'll make up the reduced sponsorship income.

[swingslammer]

I am pretty sure if you looked up "Class act" in the dictionary José picture would be next to it. Good luck......but you don't really need it because if the past is an indication you create your own luck.

[big nut]

I remember the vids That RX used to do here with Jose.
It'll be great to see him here and hopefully RX can get lots of content with him before Flex mag pays him to be a sponsored athlete.

[big nut]

Let's see some Aceto and Jose vids��

[Musclepapa John]

The upside of magazine contracts is its easy money for the male bodybuilders. You get paid and don't actually even have to write your own articles, hopefully get featured shoots and they may send someone out to shoot videos with you IF you are available. I don't see a big downside to having a magazine contract. It won't make you for as Shawn Ray stated today, "That said, today it's the Athlete who has more control over how they are perceived via Social Media more so than Print.
This is a Business and those who Wait for publicity will be doing just that... Waiting!"

[Musclepapa John]

Note: No mention at MD about this matter yet. Don't know if someone has posted it and its been deleted or not, but I'm sure there will a bunch of gnashing of teeth over it.