UFC's Jessica Eye demonstrates how easily a reputation can go up in smoke

I wish someone would have told Jessica Eye how easy this could have been.

Who knows, maybe someone did. Maybe she just wanted to see how hard she could make things on herself, and whether she could successfully turn a slap on the wrist into a stain on her career.

Mission accomplished, in that case. Her reward is damaged credibility and a reputation in tatters.

If you’re joining this controversy already in progress, the quick version goes like this: Eye tested positive for marijuana after her split-decision win over Sarah Kaufman in Texas at October’s UFC 166 event, was notified of her failure in November, and in January signed an agreement that would place her on a “fully probated” suspension for a year, which came with an $1,875 fine and resulted in her win being overturned.

Again, that was mid-January. That happened a couple weeks before any of us even knew there was a problem. Then the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation announced that it had changed her win to a no-decision, which prompted some digging by several MMA reporters, which is when we learned that she’d tested positive for some unknown “prohibited substance.”

Bleacher Report reported it was undisclosed blood thinners. BloodyElbow.com said it was marijuana. Eye said she was a “woman of [her] word” and assured us that “this is really going to hurt Texas when all is said and done.” She also took to Twitter and tried to discredit and intimidate BloodyElbow.com’s Brent Brookhouse, who first reported the marijuana angle. Then she deleted her Twitter and went on Ariel Helwani’s “MMA Hour” to further deny any wrongdoing – right before FOXSports.com produced the documentation that proved she’d been lying all along. Cannabinoids, said the TLDR paperwork. More commonly known as pot.

If only she’d taken a few hours of her time to watch “Nixon,” she might have known that it’s not the original crime that gets you so much as the cover-up. And, hey, it’s an Oliver Stone movie, so  it’d be great to watch while on cannabinoids.

The infuriating thing about this situation is what a totally not big deal it could have been. As has been demonstrated over and over in MMA, the only people who still care whether a fighter smokes pot during training camp are the ones employed by the state athletic commissions. Most fans are smart enough to know that it’s not a performance-enhancer. And fellow fighters? Most of them wish they could fight someone who’s been blazing up on the couch rather than jacking synthetic testosterone in the gym in the weeks leading up to the bout.

In other words, we don’t care if you smoked pot, Jessica. In a more perfect world, commissions wouldn’t even test for it. Performance-enhancing drugs might be a very real, very serious problem in this sport, but trying to find out whether a fighter got stoned two weeks ago is about as useful as screening their urine for traces of week-old beer. It simply doesn’t matter. Not unless you lie about it.

If Eye wants to see how easy this could have been, she need look no further than Yancy Medeiros, who, as we learned today, also recently tested positive for marijuana after his knockout win over Yves Edwards at UFC Fight Night 31. Medeiros also had his win overturned, and was given a retroactive 90-day suspension (not that the UFC was in any hurry to let us know about it).

His fight was on Nov. 6, so guess what? The suspension ended five days ago. A month from now we probably won’t even remember that it happened at all.

Something tells me we won’t be able to say the same for Eye. It’s a shame, too, because until this she seemed like the kind of person you couldn’t help but root for. She opened up in a recent interview about her father’s struggle with brain cancer. She usually comes off as funny and frank and upbeat. Just as she seemed to be gaining traction, and right before a huge opportunity in a fight with Alexis Davis (15-5 MMA, 2-0 UFC) on the preliminary card of next week’s UFC 170 event, Eye (10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) had to go and ruin it by lying about something that most of us wouldn’t have held against her in the first place.

While we’re on the topic of deception, however, let’s not forget the Texas commission’s role in this mess. After arriving at this secret agreement with Eye, it quietly announced the change in the fight result by sending an email to one website –Sherdog.com – and offering no reason whatsoever. When MMAjunkie filed an open records request for any and all information relating to Eye’s drug test from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, we got a letter from TDLR legal counsel explaining that it believed it was justified in withholding that information “in accordance with the Texas Medical Practice Act (MPA), of the Occupations Code §159.002, which makes medical records confidential.”

How, exactly, is Eye’s drug test failure for a professional fight part of her confidential medical record? She lives in Ohio and was competing in Texas. Neither of those states have laws recognizing the medicinal use of marijuana. As far as Texas is concerned, Eye was on illegal, prohibited drugs – not medicine.

If Texas had told us right off the bat that it popped Eye for marijuana, we might have applauded the commission for its use of a probationary non-suspension rather than the heavy-handed real deal, seeing as how we’re talking about a non-performance-enhancing substance here. But no, just like Eye herself, Texas couldn’t make things easy on itself.

So please, fighters and commissions and managers and fight promotions, consider being straight-up with us next time. We’re actually kind of an understanding bunch when you don’t try to lie to us. And if you do lie, there’s a pretty good chance we’ll find out.

After all, we in the MMA community are the same people who jumped on board with Georges St-Pierre’s “Greasegate” and Yoel Romero’s suspicious shorts stain. You really think we’re not going to obsess over-vague non-responses and obvious deflections until we get an answer? Have you not met us?

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