First Things First

Do you know that Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder fought on the same card in Saudi Arabia this weekend? Do you know part of their preparations included ayahuasca rituals and darkness retreats?

…do you know why?

That’s what we’re talking about today!

Ayahuasca Probably Isn't A Performance Enhancing Drug

Whose Wellness Ritual Was Worse?

This past weekend, Saudi Arabia hosted another boxing mega-event. Heavyweight titans Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder took on Otto Wallin and Joseph Parker. Before the fight, many grumbled that while this card was big, it was an even bigger waste of talent.

Wilder and Joshua are larger-than-life characters. The two heavyweights combine for 70 wins and 66 knockout victories, six losses in total, and an Olympic bronze and gold medal, respectively. Most of their entire professional careers have overlapped, but they still have yet to fight one another.

This card seemed to be organized to set up a future match-up between the two. After their wildly different performances, some wonder if the fight still makes any sense.

Joshua's fight was somewhat of a resurgence. The Brit started his career with 20 stoppages, but after being upset by Andy Ruiz in 2019, many thought his best days were behind him. That idea was cemented with back-to-back losses to Oleksandr Usyk. This weekend, Joshua returned to form by bullying Wallin for five rounds before the Swedish heavyweight retired in the corner.

For his fight, Wilder dropped a relatively slow decision to Joseph Parker. This isn't too far outside the norm for Wilder. “The Bronze Bomber” has made a career out of relatively low output fights that give way to massive unexpected finishes thanks to his nuclear power. What was unexpected was Wilder's post-fight interview.

After being asked if he still has the same fire he used to, Wilder flat out says, “I don’t know, ya know? A lot has calmed me down, ya know? I’ve done ayahuasca and found a lot of peace in my life”.

Ayahuasca And Other Rituals

For those that don't know, ayahuasca is a psychedelic tea with a rich history in South America. By brewing together certain plants, you create a drink that unleashes a typhoon of dimethyltryptamine on your consciousness. The acrid jungle juice is generally enjoyed deep into the darkness of night. One cup will push you past reality to leave you with one of the most psychedelic experiences possible.

To prepare for this journey, you're generally advised to follow a strict diet and lifestyle change that can leave you without meat, caffeine, and sex for a couple of weeks; depending on who's instructing you. It's powerful, profound, and probably one of the worst ways you could prepare for a combat sports competition.

Ignoring the psychedelic effects of the drink, interrupting your normal healthy sleeping and eating patterns is not a validated way to improve sports performance. Speaking from personal experience, I cannot imagine a worse way to prepare for a prizefight than an ayahuasca ritual.

Drinking ayahuasca was like simulating insanity only to get my consciousness squeezed back between my ears so I could navigate the rest of my life knowing our understanding of sentience and shared reality was a lot shakier than many would want you to believe. The last thing I wanted to do after returning the real world was prepare to fight someone.

Fortunately, Wilder wasn't alone with his pre-fight rituals. Around October, Anthony Joshua himself decided to embark on an inner journey of his own.

Joshua spent 2000 pounds to be locked away in total darkness for four days. When asked about the retreat, Joshua said, "I crave experiences. The woods give me peace, but this? This is about digging deep and really meeting myself."

These two boxers join Rashad Evans, Donald Cerrone, and undoubtedly countless other high-level fighters that are finding benefit exploring their consciousness with unorthodox tools. They all tout the benefits, but reality seems to be further away from their claims than they'd like to believe.

Self-Diagnosis & Medicating

Right about now you're probably expecting me to lecture on why these experiences are dangerous. How the damages done can undo a lifetime of athletic excellence and no serious professional should consider them.

I'm not going to. I think it's cool that more people are electing to safely explore their consciousness under the watchful eye of experienced facilitators.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The reality is we don't know much about how any of these extreme rituals impact people's performances. Because we don't know, and for risk of being labeled a hypocrite, I don't think it's up to me to tell anyone how psychedelics are going to make them look, feel, or perform. But that's the rub.

We are lacking high-quality objective evidence on how these experiences objectively improve anything related to athletic performance. For every Aaron Rodgers and Dock Ellis, there are case reports recording psychedelic induced psychotic episodes. And, yes, both are rare; but what is becoming less and less rare is self-diagnosing and self-medicating using tools that might not even do anything for the diagnosis you probably don't have.

As we become increasingly glued to social media and interconnected, we unconsciously swap anecdote for evidence. You see a trusted famous person admit that their diagnosed anxiety manifests in certain feelings and experiences, you recognize you have had those experiences, and there you have it - you have anxiety. Or so you think.

Then you see that person used a psychedelic, loved it, and now, sometimes, they experience less anxiety. Before you know it you're on retreat.guru looking for the next available day to lock in a toad licking. Remember, look before you leap lick.

I'm not one to tell another their lived experience isn't valid, but, generally, I don’t think vibing yourself into a pre-fight shamanic ritual is the most valuable use of time. It’s smarter and safer to take the advice of an objective third party on what medicines you should and should not take.

I know the obvious hole in this logic. How can we get medications, psychedelic or not, that there is no prescription for? It’s not like Wilder or anyone can call up their general practitioner and inquire about an ayahuasca prescription.

I teach martial arts. I'm hardly qualified to tell anyone how to do anything other kick and choke people. I'm not going to say who should be telling who what to do for their own psyche.

I am going to say that the window to be a professional athlete is infinitesimally small. You are probably best served using what has the best evidence for maximizing your athletic potential so you can capitalize on what can be a career before it becomes a hobby. Perhaps more important, we don't need to make something into what it isn't.

As psychedelic use becomes more accepted, more and more things are becoming “medicine”. What once was a fun way to giggle for a few hours is now part of the “healing journey”. That just doesn’t make sense.

Inherent in the definition of medicine is diagnosis. In what world is random consumption for undiagnosed conditions possibly medicine?

Instead of pretending to use poorly understood compounds to achieve imagined outcomes as a means of managing disease states that you haven’t been diagnosed with, you can (and should) just enjoy things sometimes.

Turn on, tune in, and, as long as you’re safe and not hurting other people, do whatever else you want. It not a bad thing to have fun.

And definitely don't assume you can predict what lasting effect that handful will have. Maybe you’ll still want to fight, or, maybe like Deontay Wilder, you’ll find peace in your life. And is that really so bad?

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