Murilo Bustamante, one of only three athletes to win both ADCC and UFC championships, has called for permanent competition bans for athletes caught using PEDs. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend, recently promoted to eighth-degree red and white belt, spoke about what he sees as a crisis threatening the integrity of martial arts.
During a recent podcast appearance, Bustamante expressed deep concern about the prevalence of st*roid use across all levels of competition.
“You see teenagers, you see blue belts, you see a lot of black belts taking ste**ids, you know, it’s not a good example,” he stated.
For Bustamante, who competed clean throughout his entire career, the issue goes beyond fair competition. The former UFC middleweight champion believes current penalties are inadequate. When athletes test positive, they typically face suspensions of around one year.
“The federations around the world should be more strict, you know, if they caught people ch3ating, banish forever,” Bustamante argued. “To make the punishment harder, they’re going to think twice.”
Bustamante’s stance comes from personal experience. Throughout his career competing in organizations like UFC and Pride FC, he faced opponents who outweighed him significantly and whom he suspected were using banned PEDs. Despite competing against men approaching 300 pounds while competing around 190-195 pounds himself, he maintained his commitment to competing clean.
“I competed against all the many tough guys bigger than me, some of them that I know was taking st*roids, but I was there competing the best I could,” he recalled.
The health consequences particularly concern him.
“St**oids can k*ll you. You can see sometimes guys passing away because they took a lot of st**oids, you know they have heart problems,” he warned.
He also criticized testosterone replacement therapy for younger athletes, questioning why competitors in their twenties and thirties would need such treatments unless they had already compromised their natural hormone production through previous PED use.
For Bustamante, this issue connects directly to his role as an educator. He cannot teach ethical values and respect on the mat while tolerating those who violate the rules of competition.
“You cannot go back to the academy and try to teach ethics and moral values for students if you’re a ch3ater,” he said bluntly.
The three-time ADCC and UFC champion, joining Fabricio Werdum and Mackenzie Dern in that exclusive group, sees martial arts as a transformative tool for building discipline, confidence, and character. But those benefits only materialize when athletes compete with integrity.
“I did everything I could to win. I did my best but using, you know, through the rules,” he explained. “This made me stronger.”
