Nick Diaz was suspended five years earlier this week by the Nevada Athletic Commission and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey sounded off on the suspension yesterday in Australia.
Rousey stated that it was “not right” to suspend Diaz five years for marijuana.
“I’m sorry no one asked me anything, but I have to say something,” Rousey said during a UFC 193 media event. “It’s so not right for him to be suspended five years for marijuana. I’m against them even testing for weed at all. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug, it has nothing to do with athletic competition, it’s only tested for political reasons.
“They say ‘Oh, it’s only for your safety to keep you from hurting yourself because you’re out there.’ Well then, 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 and Nick is a really close and dear friend of mine so of course I’m going to defend him.”
Following the comments made by Rousey, the subject was discussed on today’s edition of ESPN First Take and the complete segment is below.