UFC Welterweight Matt Riddle beats people up for a living and in the process, sometimes has to be extremely hype. Riddle according to the New York Post needs a come down, and to relax he admits he smokes marijuana.
During a recent internet radio interview, Riddle joked that weed “probably keeps me from beating my three kids.” Riddle then blasted the state athletic commission for treating marijuana like a performance enhancing drug.
The welterweight was suspended in October for 90 days for testing positive for marijuana.
“I’ve been smoking weed since I was 13 and look at me,” Riddle said on “The Verbal Submission” (via MMA Mania). “I’m in the UFC and I smash people with a smile on my face. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug. It makes me relax. It makes me happy. Honestly, it probably keeps me from beating my three kids because they’re always screaming and crying at me and my wife’s crazy and you know what life’s like. It’s hard sometimes and honestly, I like to go to my game room and rip a tube and just sit back and relax and enjoy a 20-minute show, go out, see my family, take care of everything I have to take care of, and that’s what I do. A lot of people think it’s okay to drink a fifth of jack and beat their wife. I don’t.”
Riddle believes marijuana should be legalized throughout the United States, and blamed white america for it not being allowed.
“Let’s be honest,” he said. “It’s White America, it’s the big man, it’s the guy with the money, it’s the pharmaceutical companies, it’s the alcohol companies that don’t want want marijuana legalized and they’ll do anything. They’ll ridicule it, they’ve already had slanderous campaigns about it.”
Riddle acknowledged that he struggles to understand how marijuana and steroids can be bunched into the same category.
“Funny thing about that is steroids aren’t on the same level as marijuana,” Riddle said. “You can do steroids in the UFC now, didn’t you hear? [TRT] is steroids and you can do steroids as long as you get a doctor’s note now. So Vitor Belfort just pops for testosterone and everybody’s like, ‘Oh, he failed.’ No he didn’t, he has a doctor’s note so it’s okay. And honestly, I think it’s ridiculous. The reason why they say I can’t use marijuana is because it’s a performance-enhancing drug. Okay, I understand that. It’s a performance-enhancing drug to you. Whatever. But testosterone isn’t? Steroids aren’t? And if you’re saying I can’t smoke because you need to keep other fighters safe or myself safe because I’m too high, don’t you think you should keep others safe by not letting people using steroids into the cage? That’s how I look at it.”
Mr. Riddle, Dana White is on-line one for you.