It is no secret that Luis Peña likes to partake in the devil’s lettuce on a regular basis. He recently spoke with MiddleEasy about the new marijuana drug testing procedures that the UFC has, as well as his upcoming fight with Alex Munhoz.
Coming off of his stint on The Ultimate Fighter, Peña was something of a hot commodity within the sport. While he did not win the season, suffering an injury after his first bout on the show, his unique appearance and entertaining style garnered him a ton of hype heading into the UFC.
It has been a mixed bag of results for Violent Bob Ross, with him going 4-3 since signing with the promotion as an undefeated prospect. However arguably the biggest loss he has taken so far, was when he was sidelined for four and a half months and fined by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for testing positive for marijuana.
The Real Luis Peña Has Arrived
After a failed booking with Drakkar Klose, Luis Peña is now set to get back to action against Alex Munhoz. This is a bout that is expected to be a part of the April 17th card headlined by Robert Whittaker vs Kelvin Gastelum.
Ahead of the fight, Luis sat down for an interview with MiddleEasy, where he explained how he thought this fight may go. In his mind, he is prepared to show people that he really is the fighter that they expected him to be, despite some early setbacks in his UFC career.
“I think I’m going to go in there, I’m going to show people the ‘Violent Bob Ross’ everyone’s been waiting to see,” Peña said.
“I feel like with the hype that I had surrounding me coming in off The Ultimate Fighter and everything, there was a lot of expectations on me and people were expecting to see things that I know I’m capable of, and people know that I’m capable of. I just wasn’t performing the way I wanted to, and the way people wanted me to, as far as my UFC career..
“I’m taking this one as kind of like my breakout party, Peña added. “This is going to be the one where I finally feel like I’m going to put it all together and get past the freshman-like hiccups I was having in my first couple of fights with the UFC, just because I was kind of working out the kinks of being an inexperienced green professional.”
Almost Suspended Again?
As previously stated, Luis Peña had to serve a suspension for testing positive for marijuana after losing to Kharma Worthy. Upon his return, he was expected to square off against Drakkar Klose, but Klose was forced off the card on short notice after his corner tested positive for COVID-19.
While he didn’t know it at the time, this was apparently a blessing in disguise for Luis. That is because if he had gone out and competed, he would have been suspended again for marijuana, following a pre-fight screening that was taken by USADA and sent to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
“I don’t necessarily see problem with it. I don’t see where you could say there’s a problem with me going in there high, or you could say it’s like a performance enhancing whatever. I don’t see the negative side effect to it,” Peña explained.
“The one thing that gets me is how everyone was really happy… when USADA and the UFC announced that they had stopped testing for marijuana, which is cool and all but that doesn’t stop the Nevada State Athletic Commission from coming after you.”
Peña explained that the way it works now is USADA will test fighters prior to the fight, and send the results to NSAC. This almost landed him in hot water yet again for marijuana, had he fought Klose.
“I found out that the fight with Drakkar, I got lucky. Apparently, if I would have competed I would have gotten suspended again from Nevada, off of the test from USADA where they didn’t supposedly didn’t even test for marijuana.”
Luis Peña Breaks Down Problems With New Drug Testing
As Luis Peña alluded to, USADA recently changed the rules to where they will only suspend fighters who have unreasonably high levels of THC metabolites, with a threshold high enough that it is virtually impossible to get popped for it. Unfortunately that does nothing for state athletic commissions who have the right to issue their own independent sanctions and fines on fighters.
Yet as it turns out, this is not even the most effective form of catching someone in the act. Violent Bob Ross said that they test fighters early enough that if he really wanted to, he could practically hit the bong on his way to the arena, and nobody would be the wiser.
“The whole reasoning is that they don’t want any of us fighters to go into the cage high, yet with the protocol they’re using right now, if I wanted to, I could go into the cage high and they would never know,” Peña said.
“They’re testing us the morning of the fight beforehand, and they never test again after that. My last fight, when I was supposed to fight Drakkar, I got tested at 9:00 a.m. I had a bag of weed in my room, ready to go after the fight so if I really wanted to I could have gone in there high as giraffe p—y and no one would have said anything or even know. It just goes to show that there really isn’t a rhyme or reason to anything they’re doing.”
At the end of the day, Luis Peña brings up excellent points about the inconsistent and illogical nature of the way marijuana is handled by athletic commissions and USADA. Not to mention that it is a fairly antiquated way of thinking to say that the jolly green giant is worthy of any sort of backlash.
For now, you can expect to see Violent Bob Ross back in the cage on April 17th, where he may or may not be stoned.
