The 2009 Iron Man Pro celebrates its 20th anniversary as the longest-running and most popular professional bodybuilding contest in Southern California. The contest is being held in the month of January for the first time in its history. The January show date may accommodate the schedule of exhibitors at the FitExpo which is held in conjunction with the pro contest, but many top competitors found it difficult to include the SoCal contest as their usual pre-Arnold warm-up; it precedes the Arnold Classic by six weeks. The reigning Iron Man Pro champion Phil Heath decided to skip the Iron Man and focus his preparations on the 2009 Mr. Olympia. Runner-up Gustavo Badell and Toney Freeman skipped the Iron Man and saved themselves for the Arnold Classic.

The 2009 Iron Man Pro also suffered from subpar conditioning from the top athletes. The clear and noteworthy exceptions in the conditioning department were Silvio Samuel and Mohammed Bannout. The conditioning of Silvio Samuel is never a surprise; he is always in exceptional shape. The appearance of Mohammed Bannout was probably the biggest surprise of the show. Bannout's ridiculously shredded and striated muscle served as an in-your-face pointer for his fellow competitors. The 1983 Mr. Olympia Samir Bannout helped cousin Mohammed prepare for his first professional bodybuilding contest.

The top five automatically qualify for the 2009 Mr. Olympia.

Contest Results for the 2009 Iron Man Pro

1. Silvio Samuel

2. Moe Elmoussawi

3. Ronny Rockel

4. Hidetada Yamagishi

5. Ahmad Haidar

6. Eddie Abbew

7. Mohammed Bannout

8. Mark Dugdale

9. Marcus Haley

10. Johnnie Jackson