Joe Rogan dropped a bit of a bombshell in a recent episode of his podcast, when he revealed that he believes PEDs are a factor in the success of Gordon Ryan. This may come as a surprise to fans of Rogan, as he’s been vocal in the past about how he believes that Ryan is the pound for pound greatest no gi grappler of all time. Rogan made sure to reiterate that belief during his recent conversation too:
“Gordon Ryan, who’s the greatest grappler of all time, openly admits to taking performance taking drugs. Openly talks about it. Because everyone’s doing it and he’s just honest. He’s just like ‘yeah I take them, everybody’s taking them. They’re not illegal in our sport.’ And if you look at him, he looks like a guy who takes performance enhancing drugs! He looks like a f***ing Greek god.”
“And on top of that, he is the most dedicated, the most intelligent, the most technical. And he’s trained by the best guy. I mean, he’s the baddest motherf***er that’s ever grappled… He’s the greatest no-gi Jiu-Jitsu competitor that has ever lived, for sure. Everybody admits it, everybody is scared of him, he dominates everybody. He’s won, like, 50+ matches in a row – which is unheard of.”
His guest, David Portnoy, also asked Joe Rogan why a competitor like Gordon Ryan wouldn’t want to make the transition to MMA and theorised that it might be because of the drug-testing. This is a topic that Rogan is already intimately familiar with, as Ryan has appeared on his podcast in the past to discuss a potential transition to MMA. Rogan was clear in his assessment of the situation:
“Because he’s not a striker. And because he’s dominating Jiu-Jitsu and he thinks he could be like a Tony Hawk of Jiu-Jitsu. Like a guy who rises past… like passes the sport itself and he becomes an icon for what that sport is. And he is! He’s making million of dollars without fighting in MMA, without getting the brain damage, and he is dominating in his art, in what he is dedicated to. You could say that it’s all performance enhancing drugs, but that’s not correct. Because it’s also his technique.”
To his credit, Rogan’s words are pretty similar to Ryan’s own on the topic of transitioning to MMA. Rogan did go on to clarify that not absolute everybody uses PEDs in grappling, and he singled out two men in particular as clean athletes:
“It’s not everybody. There’s some younger guys like the Ruotolo brothers who are totally clean. But you know, they’re 19 years old and in a lower weightclass. But he’s a heavyweight… And if you just look at all the elite guys in the sport… If you go to Abu Dhabi (ADCC) and if you look at the best guys that are competing – so many of them are on s**t! Most of them are on s**t.”
The fact that Rogan specifically mentioned the Ruotolo brothers should come as no surprise seeing as Kade Ruotolo has been open about him and his brother being clean whereas the majority of his opponents are not. Neither Ruotolo or Rogan are actually wrong either, as ADCC competitors like Mahamed Aly have openly admitted to PED use. Not just that but one of the main rivals in Ryan’s career, Felipe Pena, has actually failed a drug test in the past. As Joe Rogan points out, the main benefit to using PEDs as a grappler like Gordon Ryan isn’t the strength benefit but the amount of time you’re able to spend on the mats:
“To be able to train every day, the way a guy like Gordon does… And I mean every day – he trains 365 days a year. Christmas, birthday, f**k you, show up.”
Of course, regardless of whether you’re physically able to show up every day, you still actually have to do it and you still have to actually make the best use of the time you have. As Rogan explains, PEDs might help but they’re not a cheat-code to guaranteed success alone and an athlete still needs to do the work:
“So, to attribute all that just to performance enhancing drugs is crazy. But to say that it doesn’t play a part in it is also not true. There’s a factor, because the way he is able to train… One of the things, if you were on performance enhancing drugs, your recovery is way better. So, you’re able to train far more than someone who is not on those things.”
The below video is an excerpt from the episode of The Joe Rogan Experience where Rogan discusses PEDs in MMA and whether Gordon Ryan uses them, and it was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of JRE & the Fam:
Why don’t you ask Gordon live: “Have you ever taken anabolic steroids”. Why doesn’t anyone ask John Danaher about this and his attitude towards steroids?
My opinion. Jiu-jitsu will turn into a joke like show wrestling if this PED thing is not stopped. My 22 year old son is the best blackbelt in the state but I recommend him not to continue professionally because of this PED problem. Health and fair game are more imprtant than winning by cheating.