Marijuana has cost former Strikeforce lightweight Pat Healy both his spot in the UFC title hunt and $130,000 in bonus money, but Bryan Caraway couldn’t be happier.
As reported earlier today by B/R MMA, Healy’s misfortunes started when he failed his UFC 159 post-fight drug test, turning his Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night victory over top-ranked Jim Miller into a no-contest result.
And just to drive the point home, UFC president Dana White added that $65,000 of that money would go to Bryan Caraway, who had the only other submission win of the event.
MMA Junkie spoke with Caraway about the news, with the bantamweight stating that he had “zero remorse” about being handed the bonus money and “couldn’t be more happy” about the fallout over Healy’s “expensive weed”:
All I’ve got to say is that’s some expensive weed. I like Healy a lot. I came up through the fighting ranks with him. We used to train together at Team Quest. I love the guy. But I have absolutely zero remorse or guilt.
I hate weed. I cannot stand it. I’ve never tried it. I’ve never smoked a drug in my life. So I have absolutely zero tolerance for people that do it. I don’t care if it’s legal in some places or not. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. Whether it’s legal in real life or not, they tell you to follow the rules. You need to follow the rules.
Ironically, this isn’t the first time the Team Alpha Male fighter has fought tooth and nail for his bonuses.
Despite Caraway losing a close struggle to Takeya Mizugaki in a previous bout at UFC on Fuel TV 8, Miesha Tate went to Dana White after the fact, demanding the UFC award her boyfriend his win bonus for a “BS” decision.
Caraway also won a Fight of the Night bonus for his performance at UFC 149 last July against Mitch Gagnon, winning via third-round rear-naked choke submission.
Although he has recently drawn massive heat from MMA fans and pundits for threatening to “break” Ronda Rousey (via Bloody Elbow), Caraway has nonetheless managed to stay afloat in the UFC, maintaining a winning record of 3-1 since joining the promotion in 2011.
McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in NVision, PC World, Macworld, GamePro, 1UP, MMA Mania and The L.A. Times.
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