Matt Riddle received a birthday gift of sorts … although one that came way too late. The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that positive marijuana tests will no longer count as a violation of the rules. Riddle had previously tested positive for marijuana twice and had two wins overturned (turning his record from 10-3 to 8-3, 2 no contests).
Riddle celebrated the news by calling it “the greatest birthday gift of all” but admitted it was nine years too late as he’s now in WWE.
I got the greatest birthday gift of all today, maybe 9 years late but still an amazing gift and one more thing my record is 10-3 bro pic.twitter.com/8WBMOH7fpt
— matthew riddle (@SuperKingofBros) January 14, 2021
“While we want to continue to prevent athletes from competing under the influence of marijuana, and we have learned that urinary levels of carboxy-THC are highly variable after out-of-competition use and have poor scientific correlation to in-competition impairment,” stated Jeff Novitzky, UFC Senior Vice President of Athlete Health and Performance. “THC is fat soluble, meaning that once ingested, it is stored in fatty tissues and organs in the body and can be released back into the circulation, and consequently carboxy-THC appears in the urine, sometimes long after ingestion. It is therefore not an ideal marker in athletes to indicate in-competition impairment.
“The bottom line is that in regard to marijuana, we care about what an athlete consumed the day of a fight, not days or weeks before a fight, which has often been the case in our historic positive THC cases. UFC Athletes will still be subject to marijuana rules under various Athletic Commission regulations, but we hope this is a start to a broader discussion and changes on this issue with that group.”
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