Andrew Tackett, the reigning UFC BJJ welterweight champion, sat down in the Mighty Cast podcast for a conversation that touched on the current state of competitive jiu-jitsu. One topic that drew a particularly strong response from the young Texan was the role that PEDs play in what many fans and insiders describe as a growing “boring match” problem in the sport.
Tackett was direct in connecting PED use to the decline in exciting, technical grappling.
“I think the more roids that you use, the more you’re focused on strength,” he said. “Unless you’re a really smart person, you use it well. But a lot of people blast st**oids.”
“They’ll start feeling better. So they train way harder, they get way stronger, they use more strength, and they most of the time stop focusing on technique and stop focusing on flawlessness and stop focusing on finesse because they can just get through it with using their muscles.”
The 23-year-old, who has long been openly opposed to PED use alongside his brother, pointed to the kind of athleticism that gets lost when competitors rely on size and strength over skill.
“I think what makes figh ting exciting is when you see beautiful moves, when you see cool things get pulled off,” he said, referencing a finish he recalled watching at a ONE Championship event.
“Those finesse movements where they look beautiful, you know? But if you’re all roided up, you’re just like boom boom boom boom boom and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not working. What else?'”
For Tackett, the result on the competition mat is predictable.
“In jiu-jitsu, a lot of times people just hold and they’ll just squeeze and they’ll just hold you because they’re so strong. But it’s like, I’m not that strong. I got to be moving around you. I got to be doing stuff. I got to be tiring you out. So I think that just makes a lot of things more exciting at the end of the day.”
He was also careful to note that PED use is not the only factor dragging down the spectator experience, arguing that a lack of competitive aggression among many grapplers compounds the problem.
“A lot of jiu-jitsu people, they don’t have that dog. So they just don’t take risks. They don’t go for things. And now it’s boring, you know? So it’s not jiu-jitsu. It’s mainly the competitors that are in jiu-jitsu.”
