Keenan Cornelius is one of the most popular American Jiu-Jitsu competitors of all time and he’s always been known for having a principled stance against the use of PEDs. He was actually very outspoken against their use in the sport back at a time when very few people actually discussed it in public at all. Without any significant amount of testing in the sport, it was the wild west for the longest time until the IBJJF made the first move and began to test competitors. Still, even now years later the amount of testing is still limited and the majority of competitors will go their entire careers without ever being tested at all.
Still, in spite of this Cornelius has always been one of the few to make his opinions on the topic very clear. In a recent interview, he explains why he doesn’t agree with the practice of using PEDs in sport:
“We wanna know truthfully, in a fair fight, the real result and if you have steroids and other things entering into that then it destroys the whole idea of that. It destroys the honor.”
Keenan Cornelius was also practical about the prevalence of PEDs in the sport and he also shared an opinion that most people using them might disagree with in the process:
“Steroids in Jiu-Jitsu, because there’s no testing, it’s gonna be everywhere. Truthfully, I don’t think steroids really help that much, I don’t think they help people that much. I’ve beaten plenty of guys who are like juiced up on steroids and I’ve trained with those same guys when they’re not, and I’ve been beaten by them. I really don’t think it’s even that helpful. I think sure it helps with muscle mass, but Jiu-Jitsu’s not about muscle mass and a lot of times it can hold you back.”
Cornelius was honest about his experience, or lack thereof, with PEDs as well. That stands in stark contrast to other top competitors who have recently admitted using them, and he even shared his reasoning behind the decision:
“I honestly didn’t do steroids, not because I thought it was like the honorable thing to do but I thought it was actually a sign of weakness.”
Cornelius elaborated on exactly why he thinks that it was a sign of weakness too:
“If you believe that you need chemical enhancement just to participate in a sport where a lot, most, of the people are not on it, aren’t you just admitting that you’re like… you’re basically telling yourself you’re not good enough and now as a subconscious fundamental value, you’ve decided that like ‘I actually am not good enough as my normal self to participate in this’.”
The full interview with Keenan Cornelius where he explains his reasons for never taking PEDs was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Josh McKinney:
