The Unlikely PED? Demetrious Johnson Explains How Smoking Weed Changed His Fitness Game
For Demetrious Johnson, smoking weed has completely changed the game.
Once upon a time, marijuana was a big no-no in mixed martial arts. Nick Diaz was even hit with a massive five-year suspension and a $165,000 fine after testing positive for marijuana metabolites related to his fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 183. Of course, Diaz appealed the decision and his suspension was dropped to 18 months, but still.
Diaz’s brother, Nate Diaz, is also well known for his fondness of the sticky icky.
However, nowadays weed is no longer considered a banned substance by USADA or the UFC, allowing fighters to take advantage of its many benefits whilst training.
During an appearance on the JAXXON Podcast with Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, ‘Mighty Mouse’ revealed that he recently started to smoke up and noticed right away the impact it had on his training.
“I just started smoking weed recently,” Johnson said. “Oh, it’s phenomenal, dude. I blazed up one time with the gym, did 15 rounds the next day, and I was like, ‘This sh*t’s a PED.’ I was faster.”
Sean O’Malley discusses his marijuana use with Demetrious Johnson
Interestingly, Johnson had an in-depth conversation with avid cannabis user ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley last year. During their conversation, the former UFC bantamweight champion revealed that he would regularly use marijuana for low-impact workouts.
“I vaporize it, especially in camp,” O’Malley explained during an interview on Johnson’s YouTube channel in 2024. “I’m not going to smoke a joint. I’m not going to smoke out of the bong, smoke out of a pipe or dab. I smoke out of a clean, quality vaporizer pretty much once a day. I do a lot of my zone 2s, a lot of my longer workouts, like the 60-minute slower workouts, or lower heart rate workouts, I’ll do f*cking just stoned out of my tits.
“I think if you can use marijuana as a tool you can hyper-focus on whatever task you want to but you have to be able to do that. That’s a skill in itself because you could also get stoned and just completely not do sh*t, just get lost watching YouTube.”
Demetrious Johnson retired from MMA in September while still reigning as the ONE flyweight world champion, but he still regularly competes in BJJ tournaments. In 2023, he took home gold while competing as a brown belt at the IBJJF Masters World Championships in Las Vegas. The following year, he competed as a black belt but suffered a submission loss in his fourth match at the tourney.
