Steroids and performance enhancing drugs have been a black mark on almost all sports in existence including MMA and also Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

In February of 2020, the 2019 IBJJF world champion and 2019 ADCC world champion Kaynan Duarte of Team Atos failed a PED test after the 2019 IBBJJF Worlds. USADA announced the news and confirmed that Duarte would be receiving a 1 year suspension.

This is a victory for IBJJF, as it showed that the system worked. But does it really? The drug tests are announced months in advance and this means that athletes that are on gear can time their cycle so as not to get caught on a specific date.  Did Duarte simply time his cycle wrong? How many more athletes are cheating their way to victory by timing their PED use?

Drug testing is very expensive and IBJJF is doing the right by testing it’s athletes but is it really enough?

Without unannounced, random PED tests, there is zero chance of catching PED abusers. The biggest advantage of PEDs is the ability it gives a person to recover. In BJJ the users will be able to train longer, harder than a natural competitor, then just stop taking a month prior to competition so they too can pee clean. They’ll be able to work on rolling and technique much more than a natty competitor for most of the year. Even if they lose strength gains from coming off a steroid cycle, they will not lose the advancements they made on technique.

Related:

PED Use Impacts Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu More Than Any Combat Sport

In this video we go over the top 5 PEDs seen in MMA and what they do. These are the same PED’s used by BJJ athletes both professional and recreational.