Vegan Wrestling Champ Zack Sabre Jr. Gives the Meat Industry a Beatdown

In a new PETA campaign, heavyweight wrestling champion and the winner of the 2018 New Japan Cup, Zack Sabre Jr., credits vegan foods with giving him his powerful physique.

Sabre Jr., who is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, describes in a video interview how “everything changed instantly” when he went vegan in 2015 after watching the documentary Forks Over Knives. “I just felt so much more energized,” he says. “Just eating plants, just whole foods, you know, full of water, minerals, vitamins … you just feel good.” He also notes, “[T]here’s no reason to be wearing clothes that have come at the expense of tortured animals,” mentioning that his jacket, shin guards, and shoes are all leather-free and vegan.

Compared to meat-eaters, vegans are less prone to suffering from heart disease, strokes, diabetes, cancer, and obesity, and each person who goes vegan spares many animals every year daily suffering and a terrifying death.

Many of Sabre Jr.’s wrestling contemporaries are also vegan, including Tyler Bate, Markus Burke, and Pete Dunne. Sabre Jr. also joins a growing and impressive list of athletes—including Germany’s “strongest man” Patrik Baboumian, boxing champion David Haye, Mr. Universe 2014 Barny du Plessis, football great Phil Neville, and tennis world champion Serena Williams—who’ve teamed up with PETA affiliates to promote healthy and humane meat-free meals.

Pledge to cut out meat, eggs, and dairy like Sabre Jr. today, and check out our vegan recipes below.