It’s safe to say UFC president Dana White was none too amused by Matt Mitrione‘s recent rant aimed at transgender fighter Fallon Fox.
Mitrione was a guest of the Internet podcast “The MMA Hour,” where he regularly records a segment called “The Mitrione Minute” where he spouts off about any number of subjects, usually unrelated to his own fights or career.
In 2011, Mitrione decided to release a diatribe aimed at Tito Ortiz’s girlfriend and former adult film star Jenna Jameson. In the segment, Mitrone intimated that Jameson would be fighting for Ortiz and then went on to say “it’s a trap fight. We all know that she’s awesome off her back and she’s got phenomenal top control, but remember that she doesn’t choke easily.” (via cagepotato.com)
Ortiz didn’t take too kindly to the insults aimed at the mother of his children and the two fighters almost came to blows during a UFC Fighter Summit weeks later.
Now Mitrione‘s latest offering has landed him with a suspension after he insulted transgender fighter Fallon Fox, comparing her to the fictional character Buffalo Bill from the book and film “Silence of the Lambs” and calling her a “lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak” for not disclosing on her fight application that she was once a man and now lived life as a woman who was fighting other women (via mmafighting.com).
The UFC reacted swiftly and suspended Mitrione indefinitely while they investigated the situation further, and White responded on Tuesday during a UFC media conference call.
“It’s one of those things, it’s just a pain in the ass,” White said about Mitrione. “First of all, he didn’t even need to be doing an interview. I’m going to talk to these guys. The only time these guys really need to be doing interviews is leading up to fights. It ended up being a nightmare for him.”
Mitrione has been a regular guest on the podcast in the past, but White has no clue why he’s doing an interview much less deciding to address Fox. Mitrione‘s statement was not prompted during the question and answer period, he just opted to unload his rant during his open airtime.
“What was the point of that interview? There was no point in it,” said White. “Now it’s caused him a bunch of headaches and problems. It’s caused us a bunch of headaches and problems for no reason whatsoever.”
From the sound of things, White isn’t too much in favor of fighters doing these types of interviews at all, especially when it had nothing to do with his fight in particular.
“He had just fought. He wouldn’t fight again for another few months and he’s still over enjoying himself in Sweden. What was the point in doing that interview?” White asked. “What was the upside in that interview? There was none. No upside.”
For now Mitrione has remained silent on the issue since being handed down the suspension from the UFC. There has been no timeline given for when Mitrione could potentially return to action or if the UFC will seek further punishment for his transgression.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and all quotes were obtained first hand unless otherwise noted.
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