Firas Zahabi is one of the most successful MMA coaches of all time as the head coach of Tristar MMA and a BJJ black belt under John Danaher, so he has a great insight into the level of PEDs use in the sport. Their prevalence has never really been doubted but it’s also been difficult to prove, as very few professional grappling promotions even test their athletes. However, the IBJJF introducing testing through USADA has resulted in several of the biggest names in the sport being caught over the years and even more recently, there’s been a change in the culture where some competitors feel comfortable speaking more openly about their use.
Craig Jones shared his stack with the world and Gordon Ryan has explained the reasons behind his use, with them being two of the sport’s biggest stars. While there are obviously some competitors who choose to stay away from PEDs and some are even very vocally against them, Firas Zahabi echoed Jones and Ryan’s statements when he discussed the topic:
“You can’t forget, even the most technical guys are on juice. Even the most. That’s the crazy thing about the sport of Jiu-Jitsu. There are very few natural guys. There are very few in the elite level because they don’t test, right? They don’t test.”
He’s not wrong either, there’s only one organization conducting any testing and even then it is limited to the champions of a handful of events each year. Zahabi also explained that PEDs obviously do help competitors succeed, but they may not end up getting much more proficient in the technical aspect of the sport:
“You have to differentiate between being effective and technical. If you’re a blue belt and I jam you up with a bunch of steroids, you’re going to become a purple belt in not long, not technically a purple belt, but because of added strength now you can compete with the purple belts.”
He even takes it a step further and explains what happens when those same competitors end up opening an academy to teach:
“Imagine there are a lot of instructors out there who take a lot of ster*ids… They don’t understand technique because they’re so strong they’re doing it wrong.”
The full interview with Firas Zahabi where he discusses PEDs in BJJ was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Tristar Gym:
