According to Megan Anderson, Casey Kenney’s actions didn’t correspond with his words after some less than flattering remarks ahead of their same-night fights.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) does have a code of conduct despite its complete lack of reinforcement in recent years. One of the bigger recent cases of some line crossing between co-workers (or independent contractors?) came ahead of UFC 259 in March 2021.
Speaking on fellow Bantamweight hopeful, Sean O’Malley’s, podcast, Kenney was asked by O’Malley’s coach, Tim Welch, if he would “smash” the former Invicta Fighting Championship Featherweight titleholder. In response to the sex-implicated question, Kenney answered “probably not” and went on to label Anderson a “5 a.m.-er, 4 a.m.-er,” in which case if they were “Just us two hanging out, like, ‘F—k it, let’s do it.’”
Anderson was less than pleased with the remarks made which prompted an apology from Kenney.
“I’m sorry this upset you,” Kenney said (h/t MMA Junkie). “I will be more careful with my words. I was just answering a question and thought it was all a joking matter. I see I was wrong and I’m sorry. Best of luck with training camp and your fight.”
At the aforementioned UFC 259, each fighter competed in the biggest bout of their careers against all-time greats, Kenney facing Dominick Cruz and Anderson challenging for Amanda Nunes’ 145 pound title. During fight week, the two wound up having a brief encounter.
“It was so funny because he fought Dominick Cruz when I fought Amanda Nunes and he crossed paths with me at the UFC P.I. (Performance Institute) — [he] f—king s—t himself and ran the other way,” Anderson told Ben Davis.
“I was like, the only reason why he’s saying that is because I’m so much taller than him,” she continued. “I’m a weight class above him. If you’re a little dude and you’re emasculated by that, just say that. The funny thing was that you thought I would actually consider you of all people. Not even if it were the last two people on earth, I would still run the other way. Absolutely not. Never gonna happen in a million years.”
While Kenney has fought once since his split decision loss to Cruz, dropping another split to Song Yadong in the following August, the 6-feet tall Anderson has effectively put her mixed martial arts (MMA) career on hold. No longer feeling the desire to compete after the first round defeat to Nunes (watch highlights), the 32-year-old isn’t closing the door on an eventual return to action just yet. Regardless, she’s managed to thrive outside her longtime community.
Additionally keeping busy around the sport by doing some analyst work for ESPN and the aforementioned Invicta FC, Anderson (11-5) recently participated in her first feature film as part of Extraction 2, which is expected to release this year. The Gold Coast, Australia native has also garnered strong support within the video game community as she regularly streams her online adventures.
“It was very out of the blue,” Anderson said of the incident. “O’Malley used to follow me on Instagram and stuff like that. It was very out of the blue and my thing — it was more of just like why is it always f—king me? (laughs) I get so much f—king hate — like more than most other female fighters — for absolutely no reason. I don’t say anything bad about anyone, I don’t do anything, I stick to myself, I don’t say anything mean, I was just like why? Why does this always happen to me?
“I remember, just in my head, I was like, firstly, this is disgusting,” she concluded. “Secondly, to think I would even f—king look at you at 2 a.m. in the morning let alone — I wouldn’t even look at you at 7 p.m. at night, you little cretin.”