The Ruotolo brothers are among the best grapplers in the world and they’ve always been one of the most outspoken against the use of PEDs in the sport, but now they’ve actually explained the reasons behind that. There is very little testing in Jiu-Jitsu and the vast majority of tournaments don’t actually test their competitors at all, with only the IBJJF conducting anything near regular testing. Even then, they only test the black belt winners of their very biggest tournaments like the IBJJF World Championship and the IBJJF No Gi World Championship, meaning that there’s only a few dozen tests conducted each year.
It’s been something of an open secret that the use of PEDS is rampant in the sport for quite some time now, but recent years have seen a new wave of athletes being far more public about it. Gordon Ryan has famously defended his usage and Craig Jones shared his exact stack with the world, just to name two of the biggest examples. With so many competitors either openly or privately taking PEDs, it’s actually not very common to see anyone taking a principled stance against them. Mikey Musumeci is probably one of the most popular examples, but the Ruotolo brothers have also been advocates for a cleaner sport.
Kade Ruotolo in particular accused the majority of ADCC 2022 competitors of using PEDs, and it isn’t exactly an unfounded accusation either. Although he didn’t name any specific. names when he made the statement, ADCC famously doesn’t test any competitors at all. His brother Tye Ruotolo has also mentioned it in the past and now both brothers have decided to lay down the exact reasons why they’re so against PEDs. They gave a total of 10 reasons and they hit on all of the most common talking-points and criticisms of those who do use PEDs in them.
The Ruotolo brothers explained their reasons for not taking PEDs in a recent story published to their official Instagram account:
