by Christian Duque
It seems that top IFBB Pro Quinton Eriya aka Quinton Beastwood broke ties with legendary contest prep coach Matt Jansen. Quinton took to Instagram to talk about why he linked up with Matt in the first place, how he told him what his goals were, and how their coach-client relationship took off. He spoke about how he stopped working with his last coach and how the new coaching relationship with Jansen started. He spoke about his off-season with Matt, giving it 10 out 10, largely because of the amount of quality mass that he gained; however, it seems that the prep portion of it is where the pair had a difference of opinion.
Eriya also made a point to say he’s not looking to talk shit and that at the end of the day, “it’s just bodybuilding.” Now mind you, these were not statements taken out of a video that Eriya made on the subject, rather, these were IG story responses to questions posed by followers that he was posting. In another question, a fan asked Eriya if he would take a call from Milos Sarcev, to which the pro stated he didn’t want a coach right now and now perhaps didn’t want one at all moving forward. Then he changed that up a bit to state he perhaps might at some point. Quinton doubled down on the point that whether he wants to hire or fire ten coaches “it’s his life.” We must remember that this was all being said on his own Instagram and on stories, not even on posts or reels. In a later written story post the pro stated that his only intention was to be transparent. And he further stated he was “done talking about this coaching matter.”
So let’s unpack some of this information. because at the end of the day there’s a lot here and we generally don’t start articles with this much information. For starters I’m going to give my opinion, and even though everyone has one, I’m the person writing the article. My opinion is social media is a fantastic platform to share whatever it is you want to share. And we happen to be talking about an athlete’s private Instagram page. In other words, its his page and he’s not forcing anyone to visit. And he was certainly not tagging a bunch of people; he was just answering questions from his fans.
I don’t think at any point in time Quinton was being malicious or trying to create any animosity between himself and Matt. He was just answering fan questions honestly and succinctly. It would be different if he had made a video all about this subject out of thin air and posted it, but it would still be okay because it’s his platform.But it is different than what he did here. Interestingly, it seems that he may not have even wanted to talk about this as much as he did, but once you answer one question – more questions come. That is the nature of the beast in bodybuilding. Fans are not known for minding their own business. If they had their druthers they could know absolutely everything about an athlete – from where he/she goes to eat, to what he trains, to what’s on his/her mind. Most of it is irrelevant to the sport, but this is just part of the obsessiveness of fans. They are very inquisitive and the more you tell them, the more they want to know. So in this situation the athlete tried to share a little bit and move on and wasn’t able to.
Now you may counter this point and say he didn’t have to answer those particular questions. And that is also true. He could have answered questions that dealt with anything but him breaking with his coach. He could also have never made the announcement and let people find out on their own. But maybe that’s not the way that Quinton is wired. Maybe it’s his prerogative to be open and transparent. I mean he even put out a post in writing stating as such. His goal is to be an open book and if you’re going to be that way you have to be that way about all things. Because the last thing you want to be called out on is being a hypocrite. So he shared this information because his fans wanted to know and he shared it on his own Instagram – as opposed to doing it on an interview with a big website like RX, Muscle Discord, Desktop Bodybuilding, etc. That also would have been different because in that situation it would have seemed as if he was trying to tell the world about something that may or may not be considered by some to be private. And if he had chosen to do that he would have been well within his rights to so as well. In my opinion, however, and for whatever it’s worth, I probably would not have put the news out quite like this because of the fact that it was going to get picked up by the bodybuilding press anyways and it was going to make the rounds as breaking news.
How could he have done it otherwise? Well that really depends on a variety of factors. At some point the news would have had to come out, so looking at it that way this is probably the least harmful way to have done it. If the cat was going to come out of the bag, it might as well have been the athlete that put the news out.
Now is this going to cause a social media backlash? Will Matt go on the war path or will he let it die down? This is a coach with a lot of big-name athletes and I don’t anticipate him throwing any shade at his former client. He may try to say that his plan was good, but the athlete didn’t keep to it, but that may also backfire and make him look petty.
When Samson publicly fired Milos, there was quite a bit of turmoil that resulted but that I would say was a completely different break than this. In that situation, I think Samson put a lot on Milos without directly saying so. By saying he felt like his body was shutting down and saying it right after he lost his Arnold title defense, it did not put that coach in the best possible light. This break also does not put Matt in the best light either, but as Quenton said, whether he hires or fires 10 coaches it’s his decision. I think that was his way of saying that it just wasn’t a good fit. And a coach and client not being a good fit is not the end of the world.
I did find it interesting that he commended his coach – or I should say his former coach – for their offseason. Everybody was talking about how much size Quinton gained. And we’re not talking about a dirty bulk or bad weight. He gained quality muscle tissue in a pretty short amount of time. This was a testament to the fact that Quinton and Matt made a good match but for some reason when push came to shove, it didn’t come together at the New York Pro. Again there may be a variety of factors at play. The last thing I want to do is blame the coach because I feel that that is overdone in our sport, . but I also don’t want to put all the blame on the athlete because that may not be accurate either. At the end of the day these two guys maybe just were not a good fit and that’s it. There really is no more story to it than that, however, we all know that we will be talking about this well into the weekend and possibly beyond. Why? Because the news of the New York Pro has now gone to the back burner and the bodybuilding fans and the bodybuilding websites need something to talk spin.
I do respect Quinton for putting out a written statement as well. He spoke about his desire to be transparent and I think that speaks with regards to why he chose to put out the statement. I also think that the fact that he said he was done talking about it is important because it should send a signal to all the big websites that he is not interested in being brought on to talk more about this and beat the proverbial horse. That being said, I’m almost positive he’s going to get hit up by all the big websites to be asked just that. They’re going to want their pound to flash. There’s no way they’re going to let go of this story without milking it for everything it’s worth. And if it isn’t worth anything they’re going to find things to talk about.
The hope, though, is that Quinton and Matt are able to have a good relationship after their coach/client relationship ends.Who knows, they may work together again. That’s quite common with these breaks. There is also absolutely no reason why there should be rivalries and hostilities just because two people are not a good fit. And that is a message that I really want to send strongly here, with my article at Iron Magazine. We should not feed into rivalries or create rivalries where there are none. That is a sad state of affairs if that is what needs to be done in order for websites and writers to have content during periods of time in between contests.
Do you think Quinton should have announced the break publicly? Do you think if he didn’t, someone else would have? Do you think he’ll fly solo or get with another coach? What say you? As always, I hope you enjoyed reading my article, here, at Iron Magazine! Be sure to share this on your social media feeds. It’s definitely going to generate some great conversations.