Can a saliva test make UFC athletes better fighters? This Canadian startup is betting on it

A fighter and a trainer circle each other in the centre of a caged-in octagon, adrenaline and cortisol coursing through their veins. The fighter seems to dance on lightning-quick feet; muscles twitch, like a cobra ready to strike. 

I shut my eyes when the first blow lands—thwack—against the sparring glove. This is not my thing. I am a tech reporter, more accustomed to the nondescript walls of a conference centre than a sweaty, old-school gym reminiscent of Rocky. But there’s a tech angle to everything these days.

“The whole field of being able to actually monitor what’s going on in the body is going to change profoundly in the next couple of years.”

Joshua Benjamin,
Kintra

Today, the connection is a Toronto startup called Kintra. The early-stage company says it’s developing an AI-powered biometrics platform that tracks hormones and other biomarkers to enhance the performance of MMA fighters—and, eventually, elite athletes more broadly. It’s late May, and Montréal’s Aiemann Zahabi, younger brother of famed MMA trainer Firas Zahabi, is in the gym preparing for an upcoming fight. He’s set to face off against former UFC champion Sean O’Malley at the White House (yes, that White House) in Washington, DC, on June 14 for UFC Freedom 250. Kintra, whom Firas has partnered with as an advisor, is offering its biometric AI platform to help Aiemann track his hormones and energy levels, in the hopes of optimizing his performance for the biggest fight of his career. 

The brothers’ partnership with Kintra comes amid a surge of interest in biometrics, particularly as AI boasts new data-processing and predictive capabilities. Whether these insights are truly valuable in an elite fighting context has yet to be proven out—but fighters across the UFC ecosystem are adopting them nonetheless. 

The startup began in 2023, when Kintra CEO Joshua Benjamin was helping his co-founder Alexander Paquet with an ad campaign for a wellness clinic in Montréal. ChatGPT had recently launched to the public and during a brainstorming session the chatbot prompted an idea: using saliva or blood to test biomarkers in real time. Benjamin claims they started working on “biosensor engineering” and based their ideas off of the work of their scientific advisor, Elaine C. Lee from the University of Connecticut, who studies the biological mechanisms of resilience to stress.

“The whole field of being able to actually monitor what’s going on in the body is going to change profoundly in the next couple of years,” Benjamin says, as he leads me around the dusty gym. 

Benjamin says Kintra has raised early financing from the family office of Lloyd Dean, chief executive of US healthcare company CommonSpirit Health, but wouldn’t say the amount. Kintra now has a team of 15 “operators” and an extensive group of expert advisors, including former Nike VP Tonia Jones and former ice hockey gold medallist Kim St. Pierre. I reached out to both women to confirm their involvement; Jones said she is thrilled to bring her experience to Kintra, particularly on its women’s health applications, but I have yet to hear back from St. Pierre.

Kintra’s ambitions are lofty: the company hopes to create an all-in-one biomarker performance platform, including initial gene testing, saliva and blood tests, and an eventual wearable device with real-time data. The goal is to have all the data fed into Kintra’s custom AI platform, which Benjamin claims has been built to extract insights and generate reports for athletes. Right now, though, Kintra is using other companies’ lab kits as part of its stack and feeding that data into its AI software. 

UFC fighter Ciryl Gane and Firas Zahabi are both shareholders and members of the Kintra advisory board. Aiemann is one of Kintra’s first elite UFC athlete adopters. The bantamweight fighter has been regularly testing his saliva ahead of his big fight and seems happy to help with the development process. 

“It’s not about just working harder,” Aiemann Zahabi tells me as he unpacks his training gear beside a well-worn boxing ring. “Working harder has diminishing returns. So with knowing the biomarkers, I get to train smarter, right?” 

Mental game

A physically demanding and unquestionably dangerous sport like MMA encourages athletes to find any competitive advantage. The sport uses all parts of the body and requires the ability to withstand sharp blows. Recovery is paramount; something Aiemann knows all too well after suffering post-concussion symptoms after a 2017 knockout.

Many elite fighters and athletes are turning to hacking their own bodies—or at least, better understanding them. Real-time physiological data is now trackable through wearables like Garmin’s smart watches and Oura rings. This is not a new concept, but with the ability of widely available generative AI tools to process data, generate insights, and sound authoritative while doing so, more startups are moving to meet this demand. 

Biohacking the body to peak performance is also a part of UFC culture. Look no further than T.J. Dillashaw, former two-time UFC bantamweight champion, who explained on the Ultimate Human Podcast that he’s used metabolic health techniques like Zone 2 training, explored “alternative medicines to keep me in the game without having to get surgery,” and went to Panama to get stem cell treatment. 

“It’s not about just working harder. Working harder has diminishing returns. So with knowing the biomarkers, I get to train smarter.”

But the effectiveness of tech tools to track and predict athletic performance remains mixed. For women, tuning workouts according to their menstrual cycles has gained popularity, as higher injury risk has been linked in some studies to the luteal phase. Studies have also suggested that calculating the ratio of testosterone to cortisol levels in the body can provide insights into recovery and energy levels, but it’s unclear if tracking this is linked to enhanced performance. 

The Zahabi brothers train at Tristar, arguably Canada’s premier MMA gym. Despite the world-class talent that fights there, Tristar is tucked in an unassuming building off of a busy thoroughfare; no one is at the front desk before 10 am. As guys with cauliflower ears and crooked noses slowly saunter in with their gym bags, I take in Tristar’s beaten-up gym floors and retro vibe. It comes in stark contrast to the tech-forward, cutting-edge industry trend I’m there to cover.

The elder Zahabi, who is renowned in the MMA community for his unique approach to training (and his work with the legendary fighter Georges St-Pierre) sees biometric tech as complementary to old-school training. In an interview between training sessions (with a handful of gymgoers gathered around with rapt interest) Firas explains to me that frequent training at 70-percent effort is more effective than pushing muscles to the limit. That’s  especially true when looking to avoid burnout before a high-profile fight. 

“Fighters think doing more is always better,” Firas says. “Whereas when we have the science to back up our claim, we say, look at your hormones. That’s why you’re not punching as hard as you were punching the other week.” 

To Firas, the most important hormones to monitor are cortisol and testosterone, and he sees Kintra’s platform as an effective way to track those. Cortisol is an anti-inflammatory, but the body can become resistant if the inflammation becomes chronic, worsening injury risk. “Injury is the number one obstacle to achieving our goal,” he says. 

The benefits of hormone monitoring may be mental as well as physical, according to Aiemann. He was shocked at how much testosterone he had in reserves, based on a report Kintra had generated for him off of a saliva test.  “Look how tiny I am!” the athlete exclaims, gesturing to his five-foot-eight, 135-pound frame. 

That number “adds to the stack of proof” that he’s ready to compete, Aiemann tells me. “You’re always looking for a stack of proof to go out there and risk it. At the end of the day, what I do is risky.”

Supercharge or snake-oil? 

The spectacle of MMA fighting—promotional, brash, loud, and thrilling—is the perfect centre stage for startups to hawk products along the sidelines. Kintra’s not the only Canadian startup to break into the UFC scene. In 2021, Millions.co launched a social e-commerce platform that aimed to connect athletes to their fans, alongside UFC announcer Bruce Buffer. 

In the few hours I spend at Tristar gym with Kintra and the Zahabi brothers, I see at least two other startups. Two women in branded T-shirts showed up on behalf of meal-kit delivery service Hulkmeal to provide catering for the athletes. I strike up a ringside conversation with Moe Ali, who happened to have created a meditation app with Firas, which offers customizable, if slightly unsettling, AI-generated meditation sessions with Firas’s voice for a monthly fee. 

As he gears up for a full day of intense training, Aiemann mentions at least two other products he’s been given to boost his performance. There was a melatonin shot to take twice a week, offered by another UFC sponsor. He rummages through his gym bag to produce a turquoise breathing contraption, with a mouth guard on one end attached to an inflatable balloon meant to improve his lung capacity. 

I have to ask: amid all this buzz, how do athletes—whose top priority is to perform—navigate what’s legitimate and what’s a scam? 

“You gotta work with the real experts,” Firas says. “The technology has to be tested, has to be certified.” 

“We get a lot of people who approach us with gadgets and ideas a lot of the time, and I would say, like, 99 percent are snake oil salesmen,” Aiemann says with a bashful laugh. “There’s only one way to find out. You try them, right?”

On June 14, Aiemann will have the chance to test the impact of his physical training and bio-monitoring on arguably the biggest stage of his career. That is, as long as the event moves forward; two Virginia residents are suing to block the event from being held as they claim the fighting structure built on White House grounds needs congressional approval. 

The tech’s insights may give him a mental and physical boost, but to Aiemann, the work has been decades in the making. “The fight’s won in the gym with all the training and all the skills I’ve been developing for 20 years.” 

Feature image courtesy Kintra.