On episode 266 of The Menace Podcast, host Dennis James welcomed his usual co-hosts Milos Sarcev and Jose Raymond, along with the freshly crowned 2025 Mr. Olympia champion, Derek Lunsford. The group dove deep into the swirling rumors about PMMA usage and the reported panic attack that Lunsford experienced in Las Vegas.
What Did Derek Lunsford Say About PMMA?
Derek Lunsford projects an image of unbreakable strength as the former 212 Olympia winner who ascended to claim back-to-back Mr. Olympia titles. However, the 32-year-old athlete from Indiana endured a tumultuous emotional journey throughout the previous year. Although he successfully defended his Mr. Olympia crown in 2025, whispers quickly spread that he had a complete meltdown behind the scenes during the finals held in Las Vegas last October. Shortly after, claims emerged accusing him of self-administering PMMA injections to clinch bodybuilding’s ultimate accolade. Eager to dispel these falsehoods, Lunsford addressed these controversies head-on during his appearance on The Menace Podcast, leaving no stone unturned.
PMMA, or Polymethyl Methacrylate, serves as a synthetic filler capable of mimicking increased muscle fullness. Medically, it finds applications in bone reconstruction and the production of contact lenses. Certain onlookers speculated that Lunsford resorted to this material to offset the impact of a pectoral tear he sustained mere weeks before the Olympia showdown. His trainer, Chris Aceto, categorically rejected these notions, and Lunsford himself professed complete ignorance about PMMA prior to the accusations.
Expanding on his stance during the podcast, the titleholder admitted he lacks expertise in a wide array of substances, even those more commonplace like peptides. He posed a rhetorical question: “Is ignorance of certain topics truly a fault?” Lunsford typically refrains from responding to every baseless claim thrown his way, but he chose to speak out this time to safeguard impressionable bodybuilders from mistakenly believing that PMMA or similar fillers represent standard procedures in the sport. “Do my competitors engage in such practices? I’m uncertain,” he confided to the hosts. “I’d prefer to assume they don’t, though it’s possible a few might.”
Lunsford emphasized his desire to demonstrate unequivocally that securing a Mr. Olympia victory is achievable without relying on artificial enhancers. He referenced Milos Sarcev’s personal ordeals with synthol injections as a stark cautionary tale that solidified his aversion to such methods, reinforcing his commitment to legitimate training and nutrition strategies.
Derek Lunsford Opens Up on His Panic Attack at the 2025 Mr. Olympia
Earlier in the episode, Lunsford candidly recounted the psychological strain he weathered amid the high-stakes Mr. Olympia finals in Las Vegas. He verified that backstage emergency medical technicians examined him to ensure his vital signs remained stable. “I don’t owe the world every detail of my life,” the current Mr. Olympia reflected, “yet I sensed a responsibility to clarify the events for transparency’s sake.” He confessed, “Truthfully, it felt humiliating to acknowledge it publicly. All season long, I’ve portrayed myself as unbreakable—resilient, mentally fortified, capable of pushing through any adversity. I’d dismissed panic attacks as a matter of insufficient mental fortitude, something you could simply overcome with willpower. Then it hit me: ‘Wow, this is real, and it happened to me too.'”
Visibly moved as he revisited the ordeal, Lunsford expressed a newfound purpose in leveraging his influence to support fellow strugglers. “At the end of the day, I’m no different from anyone else—vulnerable emotionally, physically, and in every other way,” he affirmed, underscoring the universality of such human experiences even among elite athletes under immense pressure.
