UFC Fighter Jessica Eye Stripped of Win for Cannabis

Jessica Eye

Upon defeating her opponent in a UFC bantamweight bout, pro-fighter Jessica Eye was given a drug test. She failed the test. The punishment dished by the UFC was a one-year suspension, a $1,875 fine and, on top of all that, her victory was overturned and a “no-decision” mark now lives where a big fat “W” used to reside.

Seeing as this is a cannabis website, I’m sure it’s not a surprise that weed is what caused her to fail the UA. This is sort of like cannabis in the NFL. UFC is not an easy “sport.” It requires discipline, fortitude, and lots of training. Far from a performance enhancing drug, cannabis has no place being on the banned substances list. Unless, of course, they are willing to also ban alcohol and tobacco. Psst. They won’t.

From the perspective of one ex-NFL player, an opponent would actually hope you showed up stoned on game/fight day as it would likely make you much more docile and unwilling to cause pain (a clear advantage for your opponent in an aggressive, violent activity).

This is just more BS due to an improperly scheduled substance. Rhonda Rousey, celebrity UFC/MMA bantamweight fighter stated, “Honestly I feel like weed is not a performance-enhancing drug at all. We are tested for it for entirely political reasons. The athletic commission is there to make sure we compete fairly and they are testing us for something that has nothing to do with athletic competition. It’s actually an invasion of privacy.”

I agree with Rousey (and not just because she could probably kill me). I think if you can smoke weed and still be a champion fighter, more power to you. When athletic boards start holding mandatory UA’s for booze and nicotine (which, in a fight, might actually be arguably performance enhancing due to alcohol’s ability to deaden pain/inhibition and nicotine’s well documented “upper” attributes) I might begin to take them seriously. But I think Rousey hit it on the head when she said that the reasons for testing fighters for cannabis are purely political.

*sigh* Just reschedule cannabis already!