USADA to test at the IBJJF No-Gi World Championships
A rundown of the biggest headlines and news from the world of competitive grappling.
The IBJJF has just signed a deal with USADA and the BJJ world is suddenly on edge.
Submission grappling has long been a open play ground for doping, but the IBJJF have decided to start cracking down. Traditionally, the IBJJF only test black belts at the gi world championships, but this year they have enlisted USADA to run a testing regimen at the no-gi world championships.
As all old school MMA fans know, in-competition testing is generally very easy to work your way around and cycling off in time is pretty reliable. And to that end, unfortunately, the IBJJF have announced the new testing measures months in advance—so it will likely be pretty easy for participants to cycle off prior to the event.
Maybe this is the start of a clean future for BJJ, but the reality is that unless there are random out-of-competition tests people will manage to get around tests.
GRAPPLING STORIES
Mo Jassim, the man behind ADCC has revealed an interesting story in his second interview ever (h/t grapplinginsider.com) Mo talks about how he got his start in ADCC and about how he financed the Keenan Cornelius vs. Gordon Ryan superfight because he wanted to see Gordon get beaten. Gordon would go onto win that match and Mo would then book Felipe Pena vs. Ryan, a match where Ryan finally lost.
BJJ Fanatics held a submission only tournament for brown belts and below last week and it was pretty exciting. A unknown purple belt from Ireland called Ryan McCartney tapped out one of the top prospects in the world, Roberto Jiminez. 10th Planet dominated the rest of the tournament with Kyle Boehm eventually winning gold and earning $2500.
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