MMA fighter Daniel Rodriguez says cannabis is key to his recent fight success

Many athletes go through a battle before they peak in their careers in which they usually find that cannabis is a helpful tool for recovery and even success.

MMA fighter Daniel Rodriguez is one of them, and he’s also one of those people who credit cannabis for helping him get to the top of his game, despite starting his career at 28, which is most athletes’ time that are peaking.

biography

Rodriguez’s story is not dissimilar to many successful people in the world. He begins his teenage years in and out of the jail and detention center in Southern California, where it continues through his young adult years. But when he turned 25, he found a father for himself and turned to the construction industry for a steady income.

However, he was not satisfied.

He would see a gym called Tapout while commuting to work every day in Los Angeles. It kindled a fire within him and made him wonder what would be possible if he had devoted himself to education and professional development. His girlfriend gave him a gym membership for the anniversary and he took the opportunity to kick-start his workout. Trainers loved the fire in him; In fact, one of them, Kathy Long, is known as one of the world’s best female kickboxers.

Long announced to the UFC that she saw a hunger in his eyes. “He came to me during the day as a construction worker, at night he trained harder than anyone,” she says. “And there were days when he came in and I could see in his eyes that he was physically and emotionally exhausted, but he was training harder than anyone else there.”

Where he is today

Today Rodriguez boasts 16 wins, 2 losses and the 16th mention of the world’s best welterweight fighters. He says cannabis was one of the tools that enabled him to be successful in a tough sport so quickly.

“The coaches just kept trying to get me to learn new things. My main focus was always on the boxing aspect because I have a lot of knockout power, ”he tells TheGrowthOp. It wasn’t long before he began to love the sport, and he eventually switched to MMA, where it was easier for him to speak openly about his cannabis use.

“Boxers are not that open about cannabis use,” he explains. “They are more careful there. These guys would likely stumble that I made it this far to be such a cannabis user. ”He adds that cannabis was an important training tool that helped him get things done instead of seeing it an obstacle to his Success was.

“Every time you see me smoke, the next thing you see me exercise or exercise,” says Rodriguez. “I think it would be different if I smoke and don’t exercise or don’t do what I’m supposed to be doing.”

“When I use cannabis, I kind of get lost in training,” he adds. “Like this morning, I smoked a joint, drank coffee, put on the headphones and walked for a long time. It gets me a little more focused, gets me into my zone and I don’t really think about the difficulty of the run. “

And after all that energy used to focus on exercising, cannabis also helps him relax at the end of the day.

“As an athlete, especially at this level, it can be under a lot of pressure at times. It can keep you up all night just thinking about the pressure of fighting in front of the whole world. It gives me a mental focus that I normally wouldn’t have, it lets me relax and brings me into a more creative zone. “

“It allows us to smoke and still do our jobs,” he says, adding that cannabis use among MMA athletes is also an opportunity for them to win sponsorship deals with marijuana companies.

UFC cannabis policy

In January of this year, the UFC announced that it would no longer punish athletes if they test positive for cannabis use. The new rules are based on an agreement between the US Anti-Doping Agency and the UFC, because previously there were at least 5 fighters on the team who had to be banned within the last 12 months for testing positive for pot.

“In a significant number of cases with cannabinoids, we found that the THC presence was lagging and not providing performance-enhancing benefits or impairment at the concentrations found,” said Ryan Carpenter, senior manager of the USAA UFC and Premier Sport.

“The only concern we have about marijuana here is that it is only an anti-competitive drug,” said Jeff Novitzky, UFC vice president for athlete health and performance. “So you want to make sure that the fighters aren’t compromised in battle. And the reality, and what science shows with marijuana, is that, strictly speaking, a value in urine or blood has no scientific connection with impairment. “

Additionally, Novitzky told MMA Fighting that marijuana use can only be performance-enhancing if the fighter is obviously impaired.

“We’re making the leap that there is a performance-enhancing benefit when you’re under the influence,” he says. “The scenarios I could imagine would be a fighter who shows up in the locker room at night, they have bloodshot eyes, they smell of marijuana, they are indistinct or a look into the distance. There is evidence that they recently used marijuana, which I think would be considered a performance enhancer since they are actively impaired during a fight, ”he says.

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