At 45 years old, Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu is still competing at the highest level of no-gi grappling. On an episode of the Jibber with Jaber podcast, Cyborg addressed those questions directly, making the case that testosterone replacement therapy is not PED abuse.
The conversation turned to peptides and TRT when host Jaber enthusiastically shared his own experience and admitted he had been waiting to reach the age to begin TRT. Cyborg confirmed he uses both and pointed to careful medical oversight as the key difference between what he does and what gets flagged as doping.
“I have one of the best doctors in the world, Dr. D. This guy is an amazing doctor of performance that we have in Miami on biohacks. And this guy has been my doctor for the last I don’t know 15 years,” Cyborg said. The results, he claimed, have been remarkable: “I feel better now than when I was 25.”
For Cyborg, the controversy around TRT stems from a preconception he believes is fundamentally misguided. He described witnessing people in gym locker rooms taking unsupervised cycles with no knowledge of dosing or purpose, and drew a sharp contrast between that behavior and medically supervised hormone management.
“A lot of people think whenever they think about TRT and all that they think oh my god, you’re going to take st**oids and all that. No, you’re going to take a hormone that’s human-like, that your body produces, that it stops producing overtime. That’s it,” he said.
The host agreed, saying, “A doctor’s going to check your blood and all that stuff. I’m not getting it from Abdul in the gym changing room.”
He continued, “Obviously if you take huge amounts, you’re going to get huge, but you’re going to have side effects that you don’t want. But when you take it the proper way, as men we hit a certain age… most people hit it about 32, 33, it starts to go down So you’re just kind of like giving a little boost and then you’re perfect.”
Cyborg framed TRT not as a shortcut but as a matter of health maintenanc.
He said, “In the end of the day, this is health. That’s what health looks like, for you to be able to supplement your body with things that your body doesn’t produce anymore.”
With over 10 world titles collected across a career spanning decades and a planned return to ADCC this year, Cyborg shows no signs of slowing down.
