Ronda Rousey is the latest MMA personality to speak out against the NSAC’s decision to ban Nick Diaz for five years.
Diaz was handed the ban and fined over $166,667. at a hearing on Monday for testing positive for marijuana metabolites at a post-fight drug test for the third time in his career.
UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey criticised the NSAC’s drug testing policy and their treatment of Diaz at a UFC 193 press conference in Melbourne, as MMA Junkie reports.
“I’m sorry, I know no one asked me anything but I have to say something. It’s so not right for (Diaz) to be suspended five years for marijuana.”
Rousey called for the commission to reevaluate their policy on testing for marijuana as there is no evidence to suggest that it offers any sort of advantage to fighters.
“I’m against them testing for any weed at all. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug. It has nothing to do with athletic competition, and it’s only tested for political reasons so they say, ‘Oh, it’s only for your safety so you’re not hurting yourself when you’re out there.’ So why don’t they test for all 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 it separates everything from politics. It shouldn’t be involved at all.”
While Diaz was given a five-year suspension for marijuana use, his opponent Anderson Silva was given a one-year ban for testing positive for PEDs. Rousey reckons this does not make sense at all and is highly unfair to fighters like Diaz who have never ‘juiced’ in their careers.
“It’s so unfair if one person tests for steroids that could actually really hurt a person and the other person smokes a plant that makes them happy and he gets suspended for five years, whereas the guy that could hurt someone gets a slap on the wrist.”
“It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all. It doesn’t make me a bad person for saying it, it just – I can’t believe it’s not being said more. I think they really should free Nick Diaz, but it’s not (UFC) Dana (White’s) decision either.”
Rousey closed her diatribe against the NSAC by reaffirming her point that testing fighters for marijuana is a practice that should be ended.
“I don’t think marijuana should be part of the conversation at all. I think it’s an invasion of privacy for them to test for it, and they have no right.”
