Dana White recently released former bantamweight champion Miguel Torres in a shocking move less than 24 hours after Torres made a rape joke.
The joke was offensive and though the punishment was harsh, it can be argued that it was fair.
Personally, this writer would have liked to see Torres fined and forced to give a public apology. A suspension might have even been merited.
But White chose to fire him, and that is still within the bounds of what should have been done. It’s the inconsistency of who is punished that seems to smack either of favoritism or a lack of critical thought.
This isn’t a recent problem, as both Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans have made comments that were in bad taste.
But Forrest Griffin explained his reasoning which made sense and even donated to a charity to help fix the situation. Rashad Evans hasn’t done anything to make fans believe he is truly sorry after his comments on the Penn State tragedy as of yet.
So why wasn’t Evans fired and Torres was?
Because White stated in an interview with Ariel Helwani that he understood why Evans said what he did because he was trying to get under Davis’ skin. Davis had wrestled as an amateur for Penn State so it is easy to see why Evans chose to attack his college.
It just doesn’t make sense why he would choose that topic.
And White’s reasons for defending Davis are absurd. Because a fighter wanted to sell a fight and talk trash, he was able to get away with making light of the alleged abuse of multiple children? That is the reason White is defending him?
And Evans in no way has to pay a fine. He hasn’t even apologized for the incident. To be honest, he doesn’t need to apologize to the fans, or even to the media. He needs to apologize to the victims of the Penn State proceedings.
But White has already shrugged those comments and that action off, even though it was said in the middle of a presser for a fight that will air on network TV.
Some might say that it is because Evans is such an important fighter in the UFC, unlike Torres, that White doesn’t want to cut him. It might be true, it might not be the case at all.
White was willing to fire Torres because he tweeted an insensitive joke, and that is understandable.
Evans willingly and knowingly said something that was offensive and was done to attack his opponent and is not only still with the company, but had no repercussions.
Dana White says he deals with smart people that do dumb things. He is smart himself. In fact he is so intelligent, it’s hard to believe that he didn’t think about the mixed message he sent.
So what did fans learn from this?
The next time a UFC fighter says something offensive, figure out what their standing in the company is, and that will tell you if they’re going to be cut.
It might not be the message White wanted to send, but fans received it loud and clear.
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