Ronda Rousey: 'There's no reason that UFC fighters should be tested for weed. It is not a performance-enhancing drug'

The UFC women's bantamweight champion has defended her friend Nick Diaz

Ronda Rousey gears up for battle (Jeff Bottari / Zuffa LLC)

Ronda Rousey has said that UFC fighters should not be tested for marijuana.

The UFC women's bantamweight champion hit out at the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) after they banned her friend and fellow competitor Nick Diaz for five years after he tested positive for the drug.

Welterweight Diaz, 32, was handed the suspension this week because of the third marijuana-related offense of his career.

"There's no reason that we should be tested for weed," Rousey said at a recent UFC 183 press conference in Melbourne. "It shouldn’t be involved at all. Nick is a really close and dear friend of mine so of course I’m going to defend him. It’s so unfair."

Rousey, 28, continued, "I’m against testing for weed at all. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug and it has nothing to do with athletic competition; it’s only tested for political reasons.

Nick Diaz has been baned from the UFC for five years (Getty Images)

Ronda Rousey lands a blow on Bethe Correia (Reuters)

"They say, ‘It’s only for your safety to keep you from hurting yourself.’ You know what, then why don’t they test us for all the other things that could possibly hurt us, that we could be under the influence of when we’re out there?

"If one person tests for steroids, that could actually really hurt a person, and the other person smokes a plant that makes him happy, and he gets suspended for five years! Whereas a guy who could hurt someone so much that he could’ve died in there [and] he gets a slap on the wrist! It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all. It doesn’t make me a bad person for saying it, I just can’t believe it’s not being said more."