MELBOURNE, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Arguably the biggest star in UFC didn't hold back recently when speaking about the suspension of Nick Diaz.
"I'm sorry, no one asked me anything, but I have to say something," Ronda Rousey said in a press conference Tuesday in Australia before her bout with Holly Holm. "It's so not right for him to be suspended five years for marijuana. I'm against them testing for weed at all. It's not a performance-enhancing drug, it has nothing to do with the competition and it's only because of political reasons they say 'oh it's only for your safety to keep you from hurting yourself because you're out there.' You know what, then why don't they test for all of the other things that could possibly hurt us, that we could be under the influence of while we're out there? There's no reason for them to be testing for weed."
Diaz tested positive for marijuana use in January. The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended the 32-year-old for five years. The test was Diaz's third positive result in Diaz's career.
"In athletics, the beautiful thing about it is that it separates everything from politics, it shouldn't be involved at all. And Nick is a really close and dear friend of mine, so of course I'm going to defend him, but I see it's so unfair that if one person tests for steroids that could actually really hurt a person, and another person smokes a plant that makes them happy, he gets suspended for five years, whereas the guy who could have hurt someone so much that he could have died in there gets a slap on the wrist." Rousey was referring to Anderson Silva's one-year suspension last month.
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Rousey vs Holm is main event at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. We'll break all-time attendance record for an MMA event. pic.twitter.com/i6p6hlQ2Ki
— Dana White (@danawhite) August 29, 2015Commissioner Pat Lundvall recommended a lifetime ban for Diaz, according to MMAFighting.com. Diaz was fined $165,000.
"I would imagine if they suspended him for five years and (fined him) $150,000, it's more than just the marijuana," UFC President Dana White told MMAFighting.com. "That just doesn't make sense."
Rousey (12-0) takes on Holm (9-0) on Nov. 14 at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium in UFC 193.
