Drug test results are in from October 3rd’s Bellator 127 event in Temecula, California, and brother, they are embarrassing. Sherdog reports that four fighters on the card failed their post-fight drug screenings for banned substances, according to information released by the California State Athletic Commission. Those fighters are…
– UFC veteran Rob Emerson, who popped positive for Modafinil, a sleep disorder drug that is used recreationally as a pep-pill. Emerson lost a decision to Rafael Silva at Bellator 127, and his loss will stand.
– Strikeforce/KOTC vet Keith Berry, who tested positive for elevated testosterone levels and marijuana. His split decision win against Joe Pacheco will be changed to a no contest.
– Light-heavyweight Nick Moghaddam, who also tested positive for elevated testosterone levels and marijuana. Moghaddam’s unanimous decision loss to Ray Sloan will stand.
Drug test results are in from October 3rd’s Bellator 127 event in Temecula, California, and brother, they are embarrassing. Sherdog reports that four fighters on the card failed their post-fight drug screenings for banned substances, according to information released by the California State Athletic Commission. Those fighters are…
– UFC veteran Rob Emerson, who popped positive for Modafinil, a sleep disorder drug that is used recreationally as a pep-pill. Emerson lost a decision to Rafael Silva at Bellator 127, and his loss will stand.
– Strikeforce/KOTC vet Keith Berry, who tested positive for elevated testosterone levels and marijuana. His split decision win against Joe Pacheco will be changed to a no contest.
– Light-heavyweight Nick Moghaddam, who also tested positive for elevated testosterone levels and marijuana. Moghaddam’s unanimous decision loss to Ray Sloan will stand.
– Welterweight Fernando Gonzalez, who tested positive for marijuana. Gonzalez scored a first-round TKO against Karo Parisyan at Bellator 127; at this point, the CSAC has not confirmed whether or not Gonzalez’s win will be overturned.
I don’t understand it; Bellator is usually such a professional operation (LOL J/K). So, is it just a fluke that the CSAC caught four fish on the same event? Well, not exactly. As Sherdog explains, “All 22 fighters competing at Bellator 127 provided urine samples that were sent to a UCLA Olympic analytical lab that is World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accredited.”
Yes, all of the fighters were tested — a marked contrast from the way that Bellator used to run drug testing, which was basically not at all. In other words, the more shows that Bellator runs in which its fighters are actually held accountable for what’s in their bodies, the more we’ll see multiple fighters pissing hot on the same card. 2014 is indeed the druggiest year in MMA history, and we’ve still got two more months to get through.
(Jessica Eye and her father Randy, after their reconciliation. / Photo via UFC.com)
When Jessica Eye steps into the cage against Alexis Davis at UFC 170 this weekend, the bantamweight contender will be doing so under the “probated suspension” that she caught after testing positive for marijuana metabolites following her split-decision win against Sarah Kaufman in October. Since then, Eye has done a dance of denial with the media — which hasn’t exactly made her any fans.
But to hear her tell it, Eye never smoked weed at all. In a letter she wrote to the Texas Board of License and Regulation back in November (obtained yesterday by MicxedMartialArts.com), Eye explained that she consumed trace amounts of marijuana from second-hand smoke at a family party that went from kinda-trashy to fully-traumatic, ending with her being roughed up by her own father. Here is Jessica’s tale of woe…
********
November 22, 2013
Dear Mrs. Winston,
I am writing you today in regards to my recent test results from UFC 166 in Houston. I first wanted to thank you in advance for your time and for allowing me the opportunity to explain my position. As one of the few professional female athletes currently competing in the UFC, I can’t express you how upset and more than disappointed I am in myself for even being in this situation. I have worked extremely hard at my craft over the last 6 plus years to put myself in a position of influence where I really feel I can make a difference in not only our sport but beyond. I consider myself a role model and understand that as a professional athlete who is competing at the highest level of his or her sport, that I also have an obligation to be a leader and positive role model. The reason I tell you this is so you can understand how crushing this has been for me. Beyond the opportunity to make a living doing something I love to do, to me its more important to have the opportunity to continue to be a role model and affective people in a positive way.
(Jessica Eye and her father Randy, after their reconciliation. / Photo via UFC.com)
When Jessica Eye steps into the cage against Alexis Davis at UFC 170 this weekend, the bantamweight contender will be doing so under the “probated suspension” that she caught after testing positive for marijuana metabolites following her split-decision win against Sarah Kaufman in October. Since then, Eye has done a dance of denial with the media — which hasn’t exactly made her any fans.
But to hear her tell it, Eye never smoked weed at all. In a letter she wrote to the Texas Board of License and Regulation back in November (obtained yesterday by MicxedMartialArts.com), Eye explained that she consumed trace amounts of marijuana from second-hand smoke at a family party that went from kinda-trashy to fully-traumatic, ending with her being roughed up by her own father. Here is Jessica’s tale of woe…
********
November 22, 2013
Dear Mrs. Winston,
I am writing you today in regards to my recent test results from UFC 166 in Houston. I first wanted to thank you in advance for your time and for allowing me the opportunity to explain my position. As one of the few professional female athletes currently competing in the UFC, I can’t express you how upset and more than disappointed I am in myself for even being in this situation. I have worked extremely hard at my craft over the last 6 plus years to put myself in a position of influence where I really feel I can make a difference in not only our sport but beyond. I consider myself a role model and understand that as a professional athlete who is competing at the highest level of his or her sport, that I also have an obligation to be a leader and positive role model. The reason I tell you this is so you can understand how crushing this has been for me. Beyond the opportunity to make a living doing something I love to do, to me its more important to have the opportunity to continue to be a role model and affective people in a positive way.
Mrs. Winston, I assure you that I am not nor have I ever been the type of person to put anything unhealthy in body, let alone and illegal narcotic. In addition, I am well aware of the other athletes who have thrown away their careers over substance abuse issues and I could never understand how someone in that position would risk jeopardizing their career over drugs or alcohol.
I am not the type of person who makes excuses and can admit Im wring when Ive made a mistake. In this case, the mistake I made was trusting my family and not trusting my instincts sooner. From the time I was a teenager, my father and I have not been on the best of terms due to his own substance abuse issues which I was forced to move out of his home when I was a 18. As a young girl I saw the damage and destruction drugs and alcohol can cause and how it can tear a family apart. Well my family was not immune and unfortunately it took a very ugly incident recently to finally allow me to move forward with my life without my father.
Approximately 4 weeks or so prior to my UFC debut in Houston, I had decided to give my father another chance to get back into my life. As you can understand, I was very emotional leading up to my fight and was eager for any support I could get from family, friends and especially my father. After numerous apologies and attempts to make amends with me, I finally decided to give my father another chance and attend a family get together in my honor which he hosted at his residence, The get together involved mostly family members form his side along with many of my friends and even a few of my sponsors who had all come together to watch the fight the evening. What transpired that night , will be with me for my entire life and is what I feel may have led to the traces of marijuana that were found to be in my system.
Upon arrival at my fathers house, I noticed immediately that they had been drinking. Against my better judgment, I decided to stay and avoid another confrontation with my father especially with anyone else in attendance. As the evening progressed, the alcohol would eventually turn into marijuana. As my father and several of his friends began to smoke in the living room where we were watching the UFC, I politely asked him to stop smoking or id be forced to leave. Not only did he refuse, but he became irate and began to physically attack me in front of all of our guests. Luckily my friends and brother were able to separate us and get m out of there relative unharmed, but this would surely be one of the darkest and most humiliating moments of my life. Needless to say, I did not call the police in order to avoid this getting out in public as I knew I need to be distraction free heading into the biggest fight of my career. Looking back, I truly wish I would have filed a report not my benefit, but to share my story with others in hopers of stopping this from happening to even one other person. I sincerely feel this is what led to my test results as I have been around any other smokers for years prior to or since that night.
Mrs. Winston, I am not claiming to be completely innocent and realize I am in this position because of my actions. But I will tell you with all sincerity that I would never, ever gamble with my career or take for granted the opportunities I have in front of me. I would even ask you to contact Ohio Athletic Commission Executive Director Bernie Profato who Im confident will validate what I am writing you as far as my family history and this particular incident. Since then, ive actually gone public with my story and did an in depth interview with a reporter who went ahead and published an article about my relations with my father. Id be happy to forward this article to you upon request.
In closing, id like to thank you again for your time and consideration with this matter. Please get back to me or my manager Greg and let us know what the next step in the process will be. I am eager to put this behind me and start the next positive chapter of my life and what I hope will be a long career with the UFC.
“I feel extremely guilty now and it really bothers me. Less than a month later (after the Kaufman fight), he’s diagnosed with a terminal illness and I don’t know when I’m fighting again and I don’t know what he’s doing. I don’t know if he’s going to make it again and it’s been depressing in that aspect. I’m mad at myself for maybe not noticing things sooner myself, that maybe the reason why he was acting the way he was was because of the tumor. They even said that the tumor was changing his behavior and it was. He’s always kind of a testy person, but it was making him very aggravated and distant, and I couldn’t understand it. He just wasn’t the same. So when I got the news about it, it brought down my world a little bit and made me feel real bad about the way things went down before my big debut. I’m very hopeful that I’m going to be back in the Octagon soon enough that my dad will get to actually see me.”
So to summarize: Maybe Jessica Eye isn’t a weed-puffing liar, and maybe her dad isn’t the biggest asshole in the universe. It would have been nice if any of Jessica’s friends or sponsors hustled her out of the house as soon as people started sparking up, but what are you gonna do.
(Yancy Medeiros shows Rustam Khabilov his dislocated thumb in suspiciously chill fashion at UFC 159. / Photo via Getty)
Marijuana Day continues on CagePotato with another piece of weed-related bad news: MMAJunkie reported this morning that UFC lightweight Yancy Medeiros tested positive for marijuana metabolites following his first-round knockout win against Yves Edwards at UFC Fight for the Troops 3 on November 6th. As a result, his win has been changed to a no-contest by the very-reputable sounding Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. [Ed. note:Can we throw the word “Intercontinental” in there somewhere?]
According to a statement released by the UFC, “[Medeiros] agreed to and served a 90-day suspension retroactive to the event, and must pass a drug test before receiving clearance to compete again.”
So yeah, his suspension’s over already. It’s one of those Matt Riddle-type suspensions where the UFC only tells us about it after the fact — which they can get away with because the failed drug-test happened in a jurisdiction without any transparency — as opposed to the scorched fucking earth punishment that Pat Healy got for popping positive for marijuana in New Jersey.
It seems worth noting that Medeiros is a known associate of the Diaz brothers, who just yesterday posted a video of himself table-topping a dude with Nate. In an April 2013 interview with Sherdog, Medeiros credited the Diazes for changing his diet and work ethic. In other words, he’s a good kid who just fell in with a bad crowd. We’ll update you if/when Yancy releases a statement about the matter.
[Ed. note:Yancy. Love that name.]
(Yancy Medeiros shows Rustam Khabilov his dislocated thumb in suspiciously chill fashion at UFC 159. / Photo via Getty)
Marijuana Day continues on CagePotato with another piece of weed-related bad news: MMAJunkie reported this morning that UFC lightweight Yancy Medeiros tested positive for marijuana metabolites following his first-round knockout win against Yves Edwards at UFC Fight for the Troops 3 on November 6th. As a result, his win has been changed to a no-contest by the very-reputable sounding Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Authority. [Ed. note:Can we throw the word “Intercontinental” in there somewhere?]
According to a statement released by the UFC, “[Medeiros] agreed to and served a 90-day suspension retroactive to the event, and must pass a drug test before receiving clearance to compete again.”
So yeah, his suspension’s over already. It’s one of those Matt Riddle-type suspensions where the UFC only tells us about it after the fact — which they can get away with because the failed drug-test happened in a jurisdiction without any transparency — as opposed to the scorched fucking earth punishment that Pat Healy got for popping positive for marijuana in New Jersey.
It seems worth noting that Medeiros is a known associate of the Diaz brothers, who just yesterday posted a video of himself table-topping a dude with Nate. In an April 2013 interview with Sherdog, Medeiros credited the Diazes for changing his diet and work ethic. In other words, he’s a good kid who just fell in with a bad crowd. We’ll update you if/when Yancy releases a statement about the matter.
Jessica Eye had four months to come clean about testing positive for marijuana following her UFC 166 win over Sarah Kaufman, yet she chose to deny, deny, deny and has arguably found herself in a worse place because of it.
Perhaps I should back up a bit. You see, although reports initially claimed that Eye had tested positive for prescription blood thinners stemming from a car accident she was involved in some 11 years ago, it was revealed yesterday that Eye did in fact test positive for marijuana post UFC 166. This was largely unearthed by BloodyElbow’s Brent Brookehouse, who correctly pointed out that a) no athletic commission in their right mind would license a fighter on blood thinners for obvious reasons (difficulty stopping cuts, increased risk of intracranial bleeding) and b) the Texas Athletic Commission did not conduct any blood tests at UFC 166, which would have been the only way that blood thinners would show up in a post-fight test.
Jessica Eye had four months to come clean about testing positive for marijuana following her UFC 166 win over Sarah Kaufman, yet she chose to deny, deny, deny and has arguably found herself in a worse place because of it.
Perhaps I should back up a bit. You see, although reports initially claimed that Eye had tested positive for prescription blood thinners stemming from a car accident she was involved in some 11 years ago, it was revealed yesterday that Eye did in fact test positive for marijuana post UFC 166. This was largely unearthed by BloodyElbow’s Brent Brookehouse, who correctly pointed out that a) no athletic commission in their right mind would license a fighter on blood thinners for obvious reasons (difficulty stopping cuts, increased risk of intracranial bleeding) and b) the Texas Athletic Commission did not conduct any blood tests at UFC 166, which would have been the only way that blood thinners would show up in a post-fight test.
Why Eye chose to outright lie with the evidence staring her directly in the face in anyone’s guess. Surely she knew that it was only a matter of time until her tests results came to light, so what was she hoping to gain by denying the facts until the very last minute? As Ben Fowlkes stated on the most recent edition of The Co-Main Event Podcast, Eye’s “probated suspension” and measly $1,875 fine was probably the lightest an MMA fighter has ever gotten off for a positive marijuana test. There’s also the fact that, well, MMA fans and media alike don’t really give a shit about weed anymore — there’s much bigger fish to fry.
The real irony of the situation is that, had Eye simply admitted to her mistake like Pat Healy before her, most of us would have shrugged our shoulders and moved on from the situation entirely. Instead, Eye’s denial of the claims against her (and subsequent Twitter rant) made a story out of nothing and has left her in a much worse standing with fans than any failed marijuana test ever could. Not to mention the fallout that could come from Eye’s admittal to being on blood thinners, which could make it incredibly difficult for her to secure a fight license moving forward. I guess that’s why they say “the truth shall set you free” and all that.
CagePotato has allowed me to write an article for its legion of reprobates and cretins — well, in the eyes of some leading industry figures anyway — and I’d like to use this opportunity to issue an open letter to our second-favourite, no wait third-favourite, ahh fuck it, one of the manystoners in MMA, Matt “Deep Waters” Riddle. Matt and I shared a brief moment in time last year, and I want to publicly apologise to him for my actions that night. Hopefully, I didn’t wreck his career.
Allow me to introduce myself and set the scene a little. Initially you may notice my vocabulary may be a bit different. This is due to myself being a typicalLimeywanker. So I’ll clear a few things up though before I proceed: I can’t stand tea in any form, in no way are my teeth perfect but they’re not bad either, I think Bisping is awesome, I’m fully aware I may be writing this in German were it not for The US of A’s (late) involvement in WW2, I also whole-heartedly apologise on behalf of my country for this this twat and I am quite susceptible to the lay‘N’pray strategy. But I digress.
So let’s rewind back to February 16th, 2013, to the Barao vs McDonald card at the Wembley Arena in London. Now the UFC only comes to my little island once or twice a year and normally brings with it a pretty sub-standard card in terms of name recognition. So, me and my band of merry men turn it into a bit of a “boys” weekend and end up in all types of debauchery, eventually returning home with our tails between our legs and feeling rougher than a badger’s arsehole.
This particular card is pretty much a drunken haze, and I can only remember pieces of it. The Snake’s leg internally combusting. Watson repeatedly kneeing Nedkov. During the Poirier/Swanson fight, there was an equally good fight going on in the stands. (In the third round, Swanson put his hand to his ear thinking the crowd was cheering him, but in actual fact the crowd was cheering the huge fella raining down bombs on some poor twat.) And a delightful member of bar staff named Shaniqua who had tickled my fancy and was evidently turned off by how unbelievably twatted I was.
It was at UFC 138 where we discovered that, at UK events at least, the UFC puts the fighters in the closest Hilton Hotel to the event stadium. So for each event we go to, we always head to the nearest Hilton and have our post-fight/pre-club drinks there. After this particular card, the strategy paid off in droves.
(Photo courtesy of the author.)
By George Tibbles
CagePotato has allowed me to write an article for its legion of reprobates and cretins — well, in the eyes of some leading industry figures anyway — and I’d like to use this opportunity to issue an open letter to our second-favourite, no wait third-favourite, ahh fuck it, one of the manystoners in MMA, Matt “Deep Waters” Riddle. Matt and I shared a brief moment in time last year, and I want to publicly apologise to him for my actions that night. Hopefully, I didn’t wreck his career.
Allow me to introduce myself and set the scene a little. Initially you may notice my vocabulary may be a bit different. This is due to myself being a typicalLimeywanker. So I’ll clear a few things up though before I proceed: I can’t stand tea in any form, in no way are my teeth perfect but they’re not bad either, I think Bisping is awesome, I’m fully aware I may be writing this in German were it not for The US of A’s (late) involvement in WW2, I also whole-heartedly apologise on behalf of my country for this this twat and I am quite susceptible to the lay‘N’pray strategy. But I digress.
So let’s rewind back to February 16th, 2013, to the Barao vs McDonald card at the Wembley Arena in London. Now the UFC only comes to my little island once or twice a year and normally brings with it a pretty sub-standard card in terms of name recognition. So, me and my band of merry men turn it into a bit of a “boys” weekend and end up in all types of debauchery, eventually returning home with our tails between our legs and feeling rougher than a badger’s arsehole.
This particular card is pretty much a drunken haze, and I can only remember pieces of it. The Snake’s leg internally combusting. Watson repeatedly kneeing Nedkov. During the Poirier/Swanson fight, there was an equally good fight going on in the stands. (In the third round, Swanson put his hand to his ear thinking the crowd was cheering him, but in actual fact the crowd was cheering the huge fella raining down bombs on some poor twat.) And a delightful member of bar staff named Shaniqua who had tickled my fancy and was evidently turned off by how unbelievably twatted I was.
It was at UFC 138 where we discovered that, at UK events at least, the UFC puts the fighters in the closest Hilton Hotel to the event stadium. So for each event we go to, we always head to the nearest Hilton and have our post-fight/pre-club drinks there. After this particular card, the strategy paid off in droves.
As we went to enter the Wembley Hilton, the concierge arrogantly refused to let us in, as we were showing obvious signs of prior P.E.D. abuse and smelt like the inside of Susan Boyle’s thigh after a particularly intense Zumba class. So we decided to set up camp just outside the entrance and meet as many people as we could before our lift back home arrived.
We were chatting with “One Punch” Pickett when another fighter showed up, and I saw my chance to get past the toffee-nosed prick of a concierge. The fighter in question was Matt Riddle — someone who I know is close friends with Mary, Jane and Doctor Greenthumb. Already feeling fearless due to consuming a violent cocktail of Cuban Rum, Guinness, red wine and combination E numbers even the current British government wouldn’t allow in our now famous Horse Lasagne, I decided to make a daring move.
I casually sauntered over to Matt, reached into my Guinness sodden Levi’s and then pulled out a bag of bud so appetising no self-respecting Ent could refuse it. Particularly an Ent who has just gone fifteen minutes with the “Beautiful One”. So I got the bud and gently cupped it in my hand, proceeded to walk over to Deep Waters, and shouted “Hey Matt can you sign my hand?”. Initially he looked at me all weird, as anyone would do to a fully grown man with pupils the size of dinner plates asking for you to sign his hand. I thought “Oh Shit”; my intoxicated brain had not considered this scenario. I suavely locked eyes with Matt and said assertively, “Just look in my hand Matt.”
As Matt’s eyes slowly started to draw down to my hand I could tell he was expecting there to be a Polaroid of me in ladies underwear, a knife, or just something generally unpleasant. Then it happened, he locked eyes with my green nugget of hunger inducing goodness and gave me a wry smirk (phew!). He then told me to follow him up to his room and told the concierge we were his brothers. As I walked past the concierge I flipped him the Stockton Heybuddy and we were in. Jurassic park!
Once in Matt’s room I started to roll up. Just as I was finishing rolling I asked Matt if he was coming out for a smoke. Matt told me he couldn’t smoke as he hadn’t spoken to Dana yet, who normally comes to congratulate him after his wins, and he definitely didn’t want to be having that conversation while high as a kite. We sat down, talked and drank a nice quantity of liquor, and spoke for a while about his previous marijuana suspension. Matt proudly proclaimed he hadn’t smoked anything for over a full month before his fight with Che Mills, talked about when he won a wrestling competition that Jon Jones was in, about how he learned most of his technique in the early days from BJ Penn’s books, and generally was a down to earth guy who seemed sincerely grateful and surprised he still had fans in the UK after the “butter toothed Brits” comment. What you see is what you get with Matt; he really was exactly as he comes across in press conferences and on TUF.
(A short video from the night in question, courtesy of the author.)
Now this is where my apology comes into play. I have a problem when I’m drunk and that problem is irrational Kleptomania. Basically, I steal random shit when I’m drunk. My house is full of used fire extinguishers, road signs, and even the queue separators from KFC (don’t ask). Anyway, Matt’s suitcase was casually laid open in the middle of the room and on top was a pair of beat up camouflage 6oz MMA sparring gloves. Suddenly my Kleptomania reaches fever point.
So I fake a phone call, quietly pick the gloves up, and tell everybody I’m going to the corridor to finish my conversation and for them to let me back in shortly. Once in the hotel corridor I run about fifteen rooms down and stash the gloves. I then walk back into the room feeling like a boss only to have a sudden realisation…our lift back home isn’t due for another 45 minutes and my friends won’t want to leave until then without good reason. However in the middle of this god damn room (no bigger than 5×5 meters), is Matt’s suitcase splayed open like a cheap Thai whore, with his gloves missing. For 45 bastard minutes my arsehole was like a yawning hippo and I was constantly trying to divert his attention away from the suitcase like a scene in a bad 80’s sitcom.
An hour or so later my friend called to say he was outside, so we said our goodbyes to Matt and thanked him for a great night. As we were leaving I started to feel guilty about the gloves but it was too late to give them back. I decided I would give Matt something he truly desired, a nice big bud of Amsterdam’s finest.
Theoretically, that would have been the first bit of weed that Matt smoked for over a month (if he was being honest, which he seemed to be). Since reading about the events that transpired shortly after — Matt’s second positive test for marijuana and his immediate release from the UFC — and not knowing when the positive sample was taken, I’ve had a bit of a moral dilemma. Potentially the good deed green I gave him triggered a Butterfly Effect chain of events that led to Matt being cut. I lost a few nights sleep over this (metaphorically speaking, that is, since I sleep harder than a narcoleptic watching baseball) but I came to the realisation that despite his well-documented love of marijuana, Matt was his own man and in control of his own destiny.
So Matt, if you’re reading this, I just want to say sorry about the gloves, man. Get in contact with me and I will get them back out to you. They’ve been at a good home and have been the centrepiece of one of my BEST drunken stories since. Thanks for getting us past that snotty concierge and being the innocent, likeable, and almost juvenile Matt Riddle that I and the MMA community have come to know and appreciate you for.
I hope to see you back in the UFC soon on your one-man mission to out-wrestle us Brits.
(Looks like somebody’s already celebrating. / Video via NickDiaz209, obviously.)
Last spring former Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director and current UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner publicly criticized the way that states like Nevada tested for Marijuana metabolites, and expressed hope that it would be changed.
Fighters competing while high should not be tolerated, the idea seemed to be, but punishing guys like Pat Healy for smoking weeks before fighting seemed harsh and silly. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently upped the metabolite level that they tested for, and the tide appears to have fully turned now as the NSAC has “officially raised the testing threshold of marijuana metabolites from 50 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL,” according to a report on MiddleEasy.
We’re no marijuana experts but this change would seem to be a move by the world’s most influential athletic commission to stop penalizing recreational marijuana use by fighters, although testing for THC will continue because, while perhaps not performance enhancing, it is dangerous to fight high, drunk or in any other significantly altered state.
(Looks like somebody’s already celebrating. / Video via NickDiaz209, obviously.)
Last spring former Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director and current UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner publicly criticized the way that states like Nevada tested for Marijuana metabolites, and expressed hope that it would be changed.
Fighters competing while high should not be tolerated, the idea seemed to be, but punishing guys like Pat Healy for smoking weeks before fighting seemed harsh and silly. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recently upped the metabolite level that they tested for, and the tide appears to have fully turned now as the NSAC has “officially raised the testing threshold of marijuana metabolites from 50 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL,” according to a report on MiddleEasy.
We’re no marijuana experts but this change would seem to be a move by the world’s most influential athletic commission to stop penalizing recreational marijuana use by fighters, although testing for THC will continue because, while perhaps not performance enhancing, it is dangerous to fight high, drunk or in any other significantly altered state.