Former UFC middleweight title contender Nick Diaz was issued a five-year suspension by the Nevada State Commission on Monday for a failed drug test following his UFC 183 fight with Anderson Silva.
Diaz, a longtime user of marijuana, was not given the same leniency as Silva, who also failed a post-fight drug test. The handling of the entire process, from the drug test itself to the hearing, was an abject disaster.
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, the company's top star and a training partner of Diaz, is in Australia promoting her upcoming fight with Holly Holm, and addressed testing for marijuana at a recent press conference.
It is safe to say she feels marijuana should be treated much differently than performance-enhancing drugs.
Rousey was declarative in her comments, and without being asked, stated her frank opinion on the matter.
"I’m sorry, no one asked me anything, but I have to say something. It’s so not right for him to be suspended five years for marijuana," Rousey adamantly declared. "I’m against them testing for weed at all. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug, it has nothing to do with the competition and it’s only because of political reasons they say ‘oh it’s only for your safety to keep you from hurting yourself because you’re out there.’ You know what, then why don’t they test for all of the other things that could possibly hurt us, that we could be under the influence of while we’re out there? There’s no reason for them to be testing for weed."
"In athletics, the beautiful thing about it is that it separates everything from politics, it shouldn’t be involved at all. And Nick is a really close and dear friend of mine, so of course I’m going to defend him, but I see it’s so unfair that if one person tests for steroids that could actually really hurt a person, and another person smokes a plant that makes them happy, he gets suspended for five years, whereas the guy who could have hurt someone so much that he could have died in there gets a slap on the wrist.”
The commission's handling of Diaz's hearing was remarkably poor, and seemed steer clear of just decision-making instead opting to drop the hammer on him because he refused to be bullied.
While marijuana is considered a performance-enhancing drug, it is certainly not in the same realm as stanozolol and other anabolic steroids.
The UFC has made great strides to implement strong testing protocol and clear concise regulations, but as Rousey states, there is still work to be done.