Ronda Rousey has revealed she embraces drug testing in mixed martial arts with no fear of being caught for fighting outside the law, and she has joined the legions speaking out against Nick Diaz's five-year suspension.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship's women's bantamweight champion told Martin Rogers of USA Today she greets drugs testers with open arms as she looks to continue her dominant reign at the pinnacle of the sport:
Any time they get here I am like ‘What’s up, make yourself at home, do you want to stay and watch training?’ They are here for us, they are not here to come and get us.
I encourage it all the time. I am so successful that people are going to cry ‘drugs’ on me. I get in better shape and my body is better than ever. I want those opportunities to (show) I’m clean all the time.
It's natural critics will question whether "Rowdy" is clean given the iron vice she's held over her division in the past three years, successfully defending her belt on seven occasions.
ESPN Stats and Info recently put into context just how far ahead of her competition Rousey has been in that space of time, only once being forced past the first round (her second bout with Miesha Tate in December, 2013):
Ronda Rousey will be co-hosting @SportsCenter at 6 ET for 60 minutes. In her 12-fight MMA career, Rousey has fought for a total of 25:36.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) October 7, 2015
Rousey is responsible for two of the three fastest title fights in UFC history, according to the promotion's official website. She took 16 seconds to beat Alexis Davis in 2014 before breaking the overall record—male or female—with a 14-second win over Cat Zingano earlier this year.
Those numbers may well raise suspicion as to how the fourth-degree black belt in judo can reach such monstrous heights in the octagon, but falling foul of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) is no concern of hers.
Performance-enhancing drugs are a hotly discussed topic in combat sports due to the dangerous impact a doper could have on their opponent, but the rules are breached on occasion.
Take Diaz, for example. A veteran who made his UFC debut back in 2003, the 32-year-old was earlier this year handed a five-year ban after testing positive for marijuana—a recreational drug—for the third time in his career.
Rousey is among those outraged with the severity of the ban and added:
Say you got a parking ticket and you didn’t pay for it and you got another one and didn’t pay for it. No matter how many tickets you got you never deserve life in prison. They are pretty much trying to keep him from fighting ever again. I think that punishment is cruel.
I don’t think they should be testing for weed at all. It has nothing to do with sports. They keep saying it is for the safety of the fighter, so why aren’t they testing us to make sure we are not drunk?
Laws in certain parts of the United States mean fighters can still use marijuana and not be breaking the law, but a fighter still can't be found with the substance in their system, according to NSAC regulation.
Bleacher Report's Jeremy Botter revealed marijuana—or cannabis—consumption appears to be prevalent among fighters, too, if their search history is anything to go by:
Here are the top 5 drugs searched by UFC fighters in USADA’s database. pic.twitter.com/eFM5lQStlN
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) August 25, 2015
Rogers' report added that Diaz has appealed the ban and is hopeful of seeing it reduced in the near future, but should it be upheld, it most likely means the end of his UFC career.
Rousey is a huge figure in the sport, and her sympathy for Diaz's plight is likely to help garner more sway that his suspension was far too harsh.
The Arm Collector is preparing for a November 14 bout opposite Holly Holm at UFC 193 and says she'll beat "anybody regardless of what they're taking." Based on the performances we've seen so far, there's not much reason to argue.
