I agree with Matt Riddle

[buda2]

http://www.mmafighting.com/videos/2013/3/5/4066538/the-mma-hour-episode-171-matt-riddle

Repeat Dana White's rhetoric if you want but logically I can't argue against anything Matt Riddle said.

Best example being Dave Herman who also smoked weed and lost a his last few fights.

C'mon really? UFC is fickle and capricious. We've all seen this in our own jobs and if your justifying that crap you've got a slave mentality, sorry but it's true.

I've got a decent job where my employers treat me with respect and I didn't get it by kissing ass. I quit jobs where I my hard work was rewarded by more hard work. I work for a company now that rewards my hard work with more pay.

Everybody not just fighters, need to stop being indentured servants and realize they are valuable and deserve to be paid well when they work well.

If UFC is serious about their drug policy they need to be consistent on this shit but as with many of their other policies I doubt that will happen.

The only policy I've ever seen consistent in the UFC is that they ultimately don't screw with fighters who are a huge draw, like AS and Bones Jones. They'll huff and puff but when the big draw fighters call their bluff the UFC blinks. In every other case their policies have been inconsistent and full of double standards.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Dana doesn't, and that's all that matters, honestly.

 

[Jew Jif Shoes]

I don't see how smoking weed could contribute to being cut from an org, but then again the UFC announced an ass ton of future cuts and Riddle wasn't exciting in his last performance.

 

[Niten Ichi Ryu]

Yes, totally agreed. They also protected Jon when he got his DUI, and then threw him under the bus when he affected their business directly. They could have still had that card but Dana had to take a temper tantrum.

 

[rwjr88]

I don't see how smoking weed could contribute to being cut from an org, but then again the UFC announced an ass ton of future cuts and Riddle wasn't exciting in his last performance.

Easy. When he gets popped for weed, the fight turns into a No contest almost like it never happened. It's happens twice in 3 fights. Instead of riding a 4 fight win streak hes won twice in 4 fights thus making harder for Dana to do his job which is to promote. And with fighters being on thinner ice now, the cut was an easy decision.

 

[Stormtrooper85]

I don't see how smoking weed could contribute to being cut from an org, but then again the UFC announced an ass ton of future cuts and Riddle wasn't exciting in his last performance.

Because you don't understand how rules work.

Matt Riddle Boring, failed two drug tests

Dave Herman fights in an incredibly shallow division, has taken several short notice fights. People like seeing him get his ass kicked, anything to draw attention to the Heavyweight division.

The best ways to currently keep a job are
Be Exciting
Be a heavyweight especially if you can finish fights or be finished in dramatic fashion
Be a top draw
Be incredibly popular in a country UFC is trying to expand to.

 

[ProBoxingInsidr]

face it, nobody is a UFC fan because Matt Riddle is there. it isnt like he just got busted. he flaunted his pot use the entire time. you cant use pot and fight. that isnt ufc policy, that athletic commission policy. show you dont care about the policy and dont be surprised when this is the result.

when people are pot advocates, i point to stuff like this and JCC in boxing. he needs to smoke SO bad that he cant even stop for a fight? there is a bunch of bs in the ufc for sure, but thtas the hand their dealt now. dont like it, go fight in obscurity for a few years untimately your career is over and you made no money. then its off to find a real job

 

[#1loser]

I don't care if a guy smokes weed but if it is the rules it is the rules.
If he knew the rules he is a dumbass

 

[ProBoxingInsidr]

I don't care if a guy smokes weed but if it is the rules it is the rules.
If he knew the rules he is a dumbass

but its the ufc's fault they cut him after he broke the rules

 

[Jew Jif Shoes]

Because you don't understand how rules work.

Matt Riddle Boring, failed two drug tests

Dave Herman fights in an incredibly shallow division, has taken several short notice fights. People like seeing him get his ass kicked, anything to draw attention to the Heavyweight division.

The best ways to currently keep a job are
Be Exciting
Be a heavyweight especially if you can finish fights or be finished in dramatic fashion
Be a top draw
Be incredibly popular in a country UFC is trying to expand to.

UFC's arbitrary policies =/= rules. There's no written rule that says you'll be cut following a failed drug test for marijuana, nor has it ever been the case in the past. Jake Shields, also a very boring fighter, had a recent win overturned due to a failed drug test and wasn't cut. It's not clear whether the drug in question was marijuana or not, but he only received a 6 month suspension and we generally hear about it if it's PEDs.
Also, if you cared to read the rest of my post, you'd see I said he was boring and that in concert with the UFC's announcement is probably why he was cut. But you're right, I don't understand rules.

That's not really the point I was trying to make though. I meant I don't see how smoking weed is so severely punished when there are worse drug tests you could fail as a professional athlete.

 

[corrupted]

I agree as well to a certain degree. But his fight with Mills was very boring. As a spectator, I found myself kind of sighing every time Riddle got Mills down because from very early on it was obvious that Riddle was there purely to take Mills out of his game rather than "Impose his will" on his opponent.

He does make a good arguement, but his fight with Mills was by quite a stretch the least exciting fight of the televised card. It was a bad fight from a technical stand point and was fought at a slow pace. There were very few, IF ANY, occasions where someone made a genuine effort to finish.

So.. in a way he is right, but other people. He talks about "a good technical fight".. I don't think that he has ever had a fight like that .. he certainly didn't show that in any way shape or form in his fight with Mills... It's like he's talking about another person.

 

[m0353]

Slightly off topic, but also on topic
Let me put it this way:

You work for an employer and you know full well that the there is a commission, not owned by the employer that tests positve for banned substances.
You test positive twice from July to February and then go on full public rants against your employer and the commission (not really rants)
This all happening during a time your boss announced that some of the employees will be cut to make room from a business merger. Your last business performance was also very underwhelming.

So:
I understand where Riddle is coming from, and I do agree with him that the UFC needs to be consistent with their handlings of suspended fighters; but he should not be surprised at all why he was released now. I guarantee that if Herman fought in February and lost then tested positive, he would have been more likely to be released. But Herman is a HW and Riddle is a WW and one division has more fighters than the other.

Diaz was pretty inconsistent, not saying it was a right or wrong decision. But I can see where Riddle is coming from

 

[Grimm911]

UFC's arbitrary policies =/= rules. There's no written rule that says you'll be cut following a failed drug test for marijuana, nor has it ever been the case in the past. Jake Shields, also a very boring fighter, had a recent win overturned due to a failed drug test and wasn't cut. It's not clear whether the drug in question was marijuana or not, but he only received a 6 month suspension and we generally hear about it if it's PEDs.

That's not really the point I was trying to make though. I meant I don't see how smoking weed is so severely punished when there are worse drug tests you could fail as a professional athlete.

He still failed regardless. Twice, and very recent.

I don't understand why people find this hard to understand. He failed a drug test, twice... for something that is illegal. He is not a PPV draw nor a big name. He was already on thin ice than went and fucked himself.

 

[Bronson]

God this kid is dumb. Whatevs.

He can smoke in his car during lunch break so long as Ronald doesn't catch him.

 

[SnowBlynd]

Yes, totally agreed. They also protected Jon when he got his DUI, and then threw him under the bus when he affected their business directly. They could have still had that card but Dana had to take a temper tantrum.

Jones is an investment to them. He needs to return a satisfactory profit before he is disposable to them.

 

[Alpinestar]

You sound as if Dana has all the control just because his job title is the UFC president. You have to look at the big picture here. The UFC signed with FOX not long ago. Do you think FOX is okay with the UFC not cutting fighters even if they are caught with weed before fights? You don't know what goes on behind the scenes. It's not like White wakes up one day and decides to cut someone out of fun. If the UFC wasn't as big as they're, maybe they won't care who does what outside the cage. But the UFC is only MMA to many fans and the show is now on network television. White didn't cut Riddle because he dislikes him. They cut him because they were in a position to cut him.

 

[Jew Jif Shoes]

He still failed regardless. Twice, and very recent.

I don't understand why people find this hard to understand. He failed a drug test, twice... for something that is illegal. He is not a PPV draw nor a big name. He was already on thin ice than went and fucked himself.

Not arguing that he failed, or that he's exciting or anything like that.

It's bullshit that a guy like Riddle can get cut for something as minor as weed while Overeem can make big bucks off his roided physique after he failed his drug test.

Yeah, it's against the rules and Riddle was stupid for doing it, but is it right that he lost his job because he smokes a plant in his down time? I say no, especially since there is no policy that explicitly states he would be, and fighters have gotten away with it in the past without being cut. The fact that Riddle won the fight only adds insult to injury.

 

[MisterFists]

Sheesh, can we get some cliffs?

I'm nowhere near a big enough fan of that guy to watch a 20 min video of him....

 

[Grimm911]

Not arguing that he failed, or that he's exciting or anything like that.

It's bullshit that a guy like Riddle can get cut for something as minor as weed while Overeem can make big bucks off his roided physique after he failed his drug test.

Yeah, it's against the rules and Riddle was stupid for doing it, but is it right that he lost his job because he smokes a plant in his down time? I say no, especially since there is no policy that explicitly states he would be, and fighters have gotten away with it in the past without being cut.

Many fighters? A few have, and they are bigger draws then riddle and also did not do it in such rapid succession.

Weed is illegal, no matter what peoples views are on it. The ufc just did not want him around anymore, he had a chance and fucked it up.

Allistar is a big draw, and he did not test positive for something that is illegal. I would say if he failed for high T again, than there would be a big issue.

 

[Fizzee Water]

Why would the UFC want to employ a guy where all of his fights get overturned due to failing a drug test?