• View topic - Cesar Gracie Says Nick Diaz Deserves A Pass On Marijuana Use

Quote:

Cesar Gracie was recently on MMA Weekly affiliated TapouT Radio and discussed Nick Diaz's marijuana use. MMA Mania put the various statements into a readable format as follows:

"People who don’t like Nick Diaz, that doesn’t make sense to me because here’s a guy who has never put a syringe in his ass in his life. He’s a clean fighter. Obviously [marijuana's] not a performance enhancing drug, so therefore trying to take the guy’s win away – all of these guys testing positive for steroids, and we’ll focus on Nick’s weed thing forever. Oh, we did steroids, that’s fine. Let’s not talk about that. You did some cocaine or something. People have this fetish for the weed thing or something. Obviously he wasn’t stoned for Gomi, but Nevada State with that idiot over there. I can’t remember his name. The little moron guy that was only an athletic commissioner guy because his daddy owned the hotel. He was pathetic and he wanted to make an example of Nick because, who knows? There are theories. Nick wasn’t in the UFC. The day Nick’s not in the UFC he’s testing positive. That was kind of a weird thing because he always smoked the night before (UFC fights). Then all of a sudden he’s in Pride and he’s testing positive. Oh we’re going to take your win away. Pride actually paid him a win bonus after he tested positive. They said, ‘nah, this is just a bunch of Nevada (expletive), and he won that fight.’ He got the win bonus and he went on from there."

Really, all Cesar does here is highlight the reasons why some people, such as myself, have a problem with Diaz. I'm perfectly willing to accept that pot is not an especially performance enhancing drug. I'm also fine if Nick wants to smoke outside of competition. But the fact that he is constantly flaunting his use and bragging about being able to test clean despite smoking 24 hours before a fight is a real issue.

Cesar even says that Nick smokes the night before fights like it shouldn't mean anything. Getting licensed to fight is not a right, it is a privilege and the rules are the same for everyone across the board. Nick knows the rules and medical prescription in CA or not, those guidelines state that pot is a no-no if you want to be a fighter.

The NFL, MLB, and most other professional sports leagues have entire lists of banned substances, some of which are entirely legal over-the-gcounter supplements you can purchase at your local GNC. It's not an absurd concept for an athlete to have to adhere to a set of rules to participate in their sport.

If Diaz can't play by these rules for a few months at a time and instead flaunts his ability to get around them, then I have no reason to treat him like a guy who is operating on the same playing field as everyone else. It may not be as bad as someone using steroids on first glance, but this behavior by Diaz and by Gracie shows a lack of respect to the sport and the other participants in it.

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