Tyron Woodley is not willing to easily forgive Conor McGregor for the homophobic slur he used against Andre Fili.
When Fabricio Werdum branded Tony Ferguson a “maricon” during the UFC 216 media lunch in late September, he was made to perform community outreach for LGBTQ members in Las Vegas. But when Conor McGregor referred to Andre Fili as a “f—t” after beating Artem Lobov in Poland three weeks ago, UFC president Dana White simply acknowledged it as “a problem they need to focus on,” with no indication of any form of sanction similar to Werdum’s.
This situation apparently had Tyron Woodley “fired up”, as he stated in a recent edition of TMZ Sports’ “The Hollywood Beatdown.”
“I’m fired up about Conor McGregor, man,” Woodley said. “He was using homophobic slurs. How many passes do we give this dude?”
To his credit, McGregor offered a public apology for his words saying he “meant no disrespect”, and brought up his support for the legalization of same-sex marriage. But even so, Woodley is not sold on it.
“That’s like the person that dropped the ‘N bomb’ and says ‘I’m not racist. I got three black friends, and I had them over for dinner last night,’” Woodley said.
“I gave him a pass during the Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. He was using the term ‘boy’, ‘monkey’, things that have had very, very negative, racial undertones in the past. But I got a problem with this. When you’re a celebrity of that stature, you’re making that kind of money, you need to have a PR person on staff, and you need to have a bit more of a social conscience when you’re saying things.”
“You know cameras will be on you at all times,” Woodley continued. “You don’t get a pass on this one with me.”