UFC welterweight Matthew Riddle’s UFC 149 win over Canadian Chris Clements has been officially changed to a no contest after news broke late last week that Riddle had tested positive for marijuana following the July event at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
A source just informed me that the UFC 149 bout btw Matt Riddle and Chris Clements has been overturned to a NC due to Matt’s positive test.
— Joe Ferraro (@ShowdownJoe) October 20, 2012
Riddle, who took the fight on short notice after filling in for an injured Siyar Bahadurzada, is a medical marijuana patient in the state of Nevada and had never failed a drug test prior to this.
This is my medical marijuana license I don’t take other medications, so don’t hate twitter.com/riddletuf7/sta…
— matthew riddle (@riddletuf7) October 20, 2012
Prior to the result being changed to a no contest, Clements told theScore he believed the win should have been overturned.
“Drugs are prohibited. So it should be a no contest. But as the same time I don’t see weed as performance enhancement,” Clements said in a text message. “I fought injured and maybe if I smoked weed it would have killed the pain so I could of trained properly.”
Featherweight Francisco Rivera, who knocked out Winnipeg’s Roland Delorme at the same event, also failed a drug test after testing positive for an over-the-counter stimulant and his win was overturned as well.
Since it was each fighter’s first offence, they were retroactively suspended 90 days, making them eligible to fight again as of last Friday.
Zuffa, LLC, which owns the Ultimate Fighting Championship, released a statement concerning Riddle and Rivera that read:
“We’ve been informed by the Calgary Combative Sports Commission that Matt Riddle and Francisco Rivera tested positive for banned substance following their bouts at UFC 149. UFC has a strict, consistent policy against the use of banned drugs and performance-enhancing stimulants, including the requirement that all incoming athletes be tested and cleared. Therefore, we fully support the drug testing efforts of the Calgary Combative Sports Commission and will fully cooperate with the Commission regarding this matter.”
