Ronda Rousey is not pleased about Nick Diaz‘s five-year suspension from MMA. Not one bit. While the UFC women’s bantamweight champ was in Melbourne, Australia, on business to promote her upcoming title fight with Holly Holm, the discussion (Warning: NSFW language) turned to the NSAC’s handling of the former Strikeforce champion.
“It’s so not right for him to be suspended five years for marijuana,” she said (h/t Marc Raimondi of MMAFighting.com for the transcription). “I’m against them 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.”
For those who missed it, Diaz was suspended from competition for five years on Monday due to a post-fight drug test failure following his UFC 183 bout opposite Anderson Silva. It was the third time in his career that he had appeared before the NSAC for his marijuana use, with his previous offenses coming following fights opposite Takanori Gomi and Carlos Condit and carrying suspensions of six and 12 months, respectively.
The harsh penalty was met with massive backlash (Warning: NSFW language) on social media. While Diaz and his legal team intend to appeal (Warning: NSFW language), the ban still functionally keeps him out of MMA for the foreseeable future.
Rousey and Diaz have been relatively close since her days as the Strikeforce bantamweight champion, occasionally training alongside Nick and his brother, Nate, at Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
While Rousey has never practiced alongside the Stockton, California-based duo on a full-time basis, she has been spotted side-by-side with Nick on plenty of occasions, whether it is rolling on the mats or palling around at events. Seeing his career potentially ended over marijuana use does not sit well with her.
“Nick is a very close and dear friend of mine, so of course I’m going to defend him,” she said, “but it’s so unfair if one person tests for steroids that could actually hurt a person and the other person smokes a plant that makes him happy and he gets suspended for five years.”
What will happen to Diaz from here is anyone’s guess, but it certainly seems like Rousey will stick by her friend regardless. Keep an eye out on Bleacher Report for more news on both fighters as it becomes available.
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