If you hadn’t noticed by now, Nick Diaz is something of an anomaly. He says he hates fighting, yet it’s seemingly all he understands. He both fights too much and not enough to support his family…that he hopes to one day acquire. He is both a laid-back stoner and the drunk guy at the bar who will smack you for looking at him the wrong way. He has no belief, but he believes, he’s a walking contradiction (and he ain’t got no riiiiiiiiiight).
So it more or less falls in line with Diaz’s way of thinking that he would take a two-year break from the sport that has given him everything, complain about how little said sport has given him, rejoin the workforce, and be forced right back out of a job on account of his own willing incompetence. Does that make any sense? It shouldn’t.
The point is, Diaz pulled the equivalent of a hit-and-run on the UFC when he once again failed a post-fight drug test for marijuana. And today, NSAC test results confirm that he wasn’t even trying to hide it in the weeks prior to UFC 183.
According to NSAC Executive Director Bob Bennett,, the marijuana metabolites in Diaz’s urine sample “were measured at 300 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). The level is double the 150 ng/mL limit set in 2013 after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and NSAC raised its testing threshold.”
Of course, this might explain why Diaz wasn’t even licensed to fight Silva until three days prior to UFC 183. (via MMAJunkie):
Bennett said Diaz had also risked not being licensed for the event when he did not provide a clean drug test to the commission per a previous suspension for marijuana.
“I want to say that around (Jan.) 28th, I notified the UFC that he would not be able to fight unless we got a test that showed he was clean,” Bennett said.
Diaz (26-10 MMA, 7-7 UFC) was cleared to fight Silva (34-6 MMA, 17-2 UFC) at the Jan. 31 event, which took place at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena and aired on pay-per-view. His license reportedly came after he took several drug tests given to him by his camp.
Translation: Diaz had someone in his camp who wasn’t high as sh*t take his piss test for him, while the NSAC did what they always do and looked the other way.
Speaking of contradictions, just wait until you hear Diaz’s longtime coach, Cesar Gracie, try to both explain away Diaz’s test results while confirming that Diaz puffs more ganja than George Clinton.
In an interview with MMAJunkie, Gracie stated that, “My understanding was he passed the test, then he fought and then after he passed the test, he did not smoke. The exertion of the fight affected the test and that’s why [Diaz] tested positive,” which is nothing short mind-blowing in the absolute lack of basic science it displays. But even more hilarious was Gracie’s subsequent admission to MMAFighting that Diaz’s positive test was “not a shocker.”
“His DNA is THC, let’s face it,” said Gracie. “No one is surprised by that. I’m disappointed by it. It’s just a distraction. It sucks. I don’t want any distractions. The guy is such a brilliant fighter. I’d rather be talking about how skilled he is.”
Look, I’m not trying to vilify Diaz for his marijuana usage, especially in light of the fact that he was training to fight a juiced-up version of the G.O.A.T at the time. Marijuana shouldn’t be illegal, MMA fighters should be allowed to use it recreationally if it helps relieve pain, blah blah blah, etc. But can we just drop it with the act already? The NSAC needed a clean sample from Diaz in order to license him, which he could not provide, so he did what he had to do in order to keep the fight on. Just like the NSAC did when they found out Silva was on PED’s a month out from his fight, because you best believe they knew it prior to UFC 183.
Diaz didn’t stop smoking for a few days, then pass a test, then go back to smoking. That is not how marijuana metabolites are stored in the body, and everyone knows it. There is no way in Hell that Diaz gave enough fucks to try and hide his usage prior to UFC 183 — I offer the video at the top of this article as proof of this — so please, Anderson, Nick, Bob, Francisco, can we stop throwing our hands in the air and pleading ignorance on all this? The Ultimate Roided Fucking Killers League is the future of this sport. Let’s embrace the crazy.
-J. Jones