“He was involved in the first fight and the second fight,” White said. “I told the guys to go let him grab some beer and some popcorn and go sit down and start watching some fights, not judging them.”
To clarify, Hughes was only singled out because he worked both fights, not because his scorecards were significantly worse than anybody else’s. In the opening bout between Milana Dudieva and Elizabeth Phillips, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Dudieva — a result that White said he actually agreed with — and in the next bout between Royston Wee and Yao Zhikui, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Wee. White did not agree with that decision, and it sent the UFC prez into “a pretty bad meltdown.”
While it’s kind of refreshing to see a bad judge get pulled off the mound like a nervous pitcher, the incident prompted a storm of criticism from MMA journalists including Kevin Iole and Ben Fowlkes, who felt it was a tremendous conflict of interest for a UFC executive to remove a judge when he doesn’t agree with the results — especially in locales without athletic commissions, where the UFC arranges virtually all of the officiating itself.
The UFC brass must have come to the same conclusion, because the following statement was just published on UFC.com:
(Poor Dana. He has his good days and his bad days. / Photo via MMA in Asia)
“He was involved in the first fight and the second fight,” White said. “I told the guys to go let him grab some beer and some popcorn and go sit down and start watching some fights, not judging them.”
To clarify, Hughes was only singled out because he worked both fights, not because his scorecards were significantly worse than anybody else’s. In the opening bout between Milana Dudieva and Elizabeth Phillips, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Dudieva — a result that White said he actually agreed with — and in the next bout between Royston Wee and Yao Zhikui, Hughes was one of the two judges to score it for Wee. White did not agree with that decision, and it sent the UFC prez into “a pretty bad meltdown.”
While it’s kind of refreshing to see a bad judge get pulled off the mound like a nervous pitcher, the incident prompted a storm of criticism from MMA journalists including Kevin Iole and Ben Fowlkes, who felt it was a tremendous conflict of interest for a UFC executive to remove a judge when he doesn’t agree with the results — especially in locales without athletic commissions, where the UFC arranges virtually all of the officiating itself.
The UFC brass must have come to the same conclusion, because the following statement was just published on UFC.com:
After an internal review, the UFC organization announced today that a breach of its independent regulatory protocol occurred on Saturday night during UFC FIGHT NIGHT MACAO.
After the second fight of the night, UFC President Dana White requested that Howard Hughes, one of the event’s five assigned judges, be removed from working any further bouts. Pursuant to UFC’s protocol, neither White nor any other UFC executive possesses such authority. Nevertheless, protocol was breached and Hughes did not work further bouts on Saturday night.
The UFC organization has always been in support of government regulation and oversight. Additionally, the UFC has established a protocol when required to self-regulate events due to the lack of an official athletic commission, federation or other regulatory body. In those instances where UFC holds events in locations without a regulatory body, the UFC’s protocol dictates that the organization’s internal regulators will handle all commission functions independently and without interference by company executives or employees.
The UFC remains committed to maintaining the strictest regulatory environment for competition and vows that no similar breach of protocol will happen again.
Both White and the UFC apologize to Mr. Hughes for calling his professional judgment into question. Hughes has judged more than 25 UFC fight cards and the UFC looks forward to him working on its events again in the future.
Kudos to the UFC for acknowledging the incident and apologizing for it. The UFC has suspended Dana White for six months, and he must pass a drug test before promoting another event. Okay, not really, but wouldn’t that be great?
(Dana White’s “I’m not the president of a massive company” pose, typically used by presidents of massive companies. / Photo via Getty.)
A few years ago, Matt Brown’s recent, sexist comments about women’s MMA wouldn’t have rocked the boat much. Some people would’ve complained, citing such infractions of decency as the reason why the UFC wasn’t where the NFL was in terms of mainstream appeal. Dana White would’ve simply responded “Fuck you, dummy” or some other dismissive, useless remark. The UFC is cool, and it’s cool because the fighters aren’t corporate, generic, and anodyne. They’re as real as it gets, as opposed to the walking-press releases that are athletes in other major sports.
Nine out of ten UFC fans will side with Quinton Jackson and Joe Rogan every time, because Rampage and Joe are awesome, and motorboating is hilarious, and who the fuck is Maggie Hendricks anyway? Seriously, here’s another representative comment from the UG thread from member ‘Bat21?:
“shitty cunty?!?!? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! Fuck, I’m still laughing after 5 minutes. You’re the man, Joe.”
Jesus. If this is the mindset of the average UFC fan, then good luck being taken seriously, guys.
A high-profile commentator for the NFL or NBA couldn’t get away with throwing around slurs like this in public forums. I know that the fast-and-loose quality of the UFC’s frontmen and fighters has been part of the brand’s great success to this point. But there will come a time (we hope) when MMA is so popular that guys like Rampage and Rogan will have to behave like gentlemen — so they may as well start practicing for it now.
Has this time finally come? Do UFC employees finally have to behave, as Ben Goldstein put it, like gentleman?
(Dana White’s “I’m not the president of a massive company” pose, typically used by presidents of massive companies. / Photo via Getty.)
A few years ago, Matt Brown’s recent, sexist comments about women’s MMA wouldn’t have rocked the boat much. Some people would’ve complained, citing such infractions of decency as the reason why the UFC wasn’t where the NFL was in terms of mainstream appeal. Dana White would’ve responded to any criticism with “Fuck you, dummy” or some other dismissive, useless remark. The UFC is cool, and it’s cool because the fighters aren’t corporate, generic, and anodyne. They’re as real as it gets, as opposed to the walking-press releases that are athletes in other major sports.
Nine out of ten UFC fans will side with Quinton Jackson and Joe Rogan every time, because Rampage and Joe are awesome, and motorboating is hilarious, and who the fuck is Maggie Hendricks anyway? Seriously, here’s another representative comment from the UG thread from member ‘Bat21?:
“shitty cunty?!?!? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! Fuck, I’m still laughing after 5 minutes. You’re the man, Joe.”
Jesus. If this is the mindset of the average UFC fan, then good luck being taken seriously, guys.
A high-profile commentator for the NFL or NBA couldn’t get away with throwing around slurs like this in public forums. I know that the fast-and-loose quality of the UFC’s frontmen and fighters has been part of the brand’s great success to this point. But there will come a time (we hope) when MMA is so popular that guys like Rampage and Rogan will have to behave like gentlemen — so they may as well start practicing for it now.
Has this time finally come? Do UFC employees finally have to behave, as Ben Goldstein put it, like gentleman?
However, the UFC’s stance against moral turpitude might only be a veneer.
McGregor and Brown objectified and downplayed the importance of top female fighters—ones that the UFC is banking on, especially now that they’re adding a women’s strawweight division and devoting an entire season of TUF to it.
The UFC also ignores slights against cultural decorum if they’re perpetrated by upper echelon fighters/big draws.
If we’re asking whether the UFC, in terms of conduct, is fast approaching the standards of the NFL and the other sports titans, the answer is no.
The UFC punishes people it can afford to. The major stars like Rousey can say whatever they want, and if they cross the line, a manager or some other underling will issue a feeble non-apology in their name (the only exception to this rule is dissing a sponsor, which not even Brock Lesnar can get away with).
Furthermore, Dana White burieshis ownfighters (a lot) and offers insultingly laconic explanations for important actions like raising PPV prices. The general public doesn’t expect such conduct from the figurehead of a major sports organization. Of course, some might argue that this unabashed predilection towards crass “honesty” is part of the UFC’s success (as I did way back in the day). But what helps it thrive on the fringes might be what keeps it from entering the realms of the mainstream, a feat which even Dana White said the UFC hadn’t accomplished yet.
For the time being, the UFC, save for a few forced apologies, is as real as it gets—even if that means we see some of the warts.
(Matt Brown: Knockout artist, foxy-boxing aficionado. / Photo via Getty)
On Wednesday, we gave our CagePotato Seal of Approval to Matt Brown‘s new podcast Legit Man Shit, featuring the “hilarious, borderline sexist musings” of the tough-as-nails UFC welterweight contender. As Jared wrote, “head over to the podcast’s SoundCloud page and check out episode one before Brown is inevitably stifled by his superiors like every forward-thinking philosophizer before him.”
The quote that wound up getting Brown in trouble with his bosses was a rant about women’s MMA that featured the line, “If I’ma pay 60 dollars for a pay-per-view to watch women fight, they should at least be topless.” Soon after that quote began circulatingaroundthe MMAblogosphere, the UFC released the following statement:
“Matt Brown has apologized for the comments made on his podcast, and we have addressed the matter with him. His comments don’t reflect the views of the UFC. There’s no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. The UFC is built on principles of respect [Ed. note: LMFAO], and any statements to the contrary are not acceptable.”
The UFC is understandably touchy about its female fighters being publicly disrespected by its male fighters; featherweight Conor McGregor was previously smacked down after he released a sexually-charged tweet about Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. And now it’s the Immortal’s turn to put out a forced apology:
(Matt Brown: Knockout artist, foxy-boxing aficionado. / Photo via Getty)
On Wednesday, we gave our CagePotato Seal of Approval to Matt Brown‘s new podcast Legit Man Shit, featuring the “hilarious, borderline sexist musings” of the tough-as-nails UFC welterweight contender. As Jared wrote, “head over to the podcast’s SoundCloud page and check out episode one before Brown is inevitably stifled by his superiors like every forward-thinking philosophizer before him.”
The quote that wound up getting Brown in trouble with his bosses was a rant about women’s MMA that featured the line, “If I’ma pay 60 dollars for a pay-per-view to watch women fight, they should at least be topless.” Soon after that quote began circulatingaroundthe MMAblogosphere, the UFC released the following statement:
“Matt Brown has apologized for the comments made on his podcast, and we have addressed the matter with him. His comments don’t reflect the views of the UFC. There’s no place for discrimination within our organization at any level. The UFC is built on principles of respect [Ed. note: LMFAO], and any statements to the contrary are not acceptable.”
The UFC is understandably touchy about its female fighters being publicly disrespected by its male fighters; featherweight Conor McGregor was previously smacked down after he released a sexually-charged tweet about Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey. And now it’s the Immortal’s turn to put out a forced apology:
“I have spoken with the UFC about the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy and what is required and expected of me as a professional athlete under the terms of my promotion agreement. The UFC has a policy of inclusion and respect for all people and I understand the importance of being more aware of my actions and words.”
So will Legit Man Shit become just another one-episode wonder, like Quarterlife, Emily’s Reasons Why Not, and Heil Honey I’m Home? Has Matt Brown’s promising broadcasting career been snuffed out before it could even get started? And what the hell has happened to free speech in this country, anyway? I miss the days when you could discuss your preference of vagina to anus without losing your job, but that’s just me — a real American who bleeds red, white & blue, and only does sex with WOMEN, thank you very much. [*solemnly spits mouthful of dip-juice*]
At least that’s the impression we get from their recent decision not to sign him. Bjorn Rebney told TMZ the following about why he his Viacom puppet master decided to pass on Palhares:
“Risks already exist for the courageous, world class fighters who either enter the Bellator cage; without adding further unnecessary risks into the mix. Fighter safety is paramount to me and my team.”
That eliminates one destination for the recently disgraced Palhares — MMA’s version of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Maybe he’ll go to World Series of Fighting, although Jon Fitch has already refused a hypothetical fight against him due to safety concerns. But it seems like Bellator missed a good catch here. Palhares is a talented fighter coming off a win. He had tons of heat, so the signing would’ve generated tons of press — for a Bellator signing, anyway — or at least more press than signing a UFC castaway whose career highlight is getting kicked in the face.
Palhares (or his people) sensed that he was becoming damaged goods. Consequently, he issued an explanation/apology yesterday that you can check out after the jump.
(Rousimar Palhares doing “God’s work.” / Photo via Getty Images)
At least that’s the impression we get from their recent decision not to sign him. Bjorn Rebney told TMZ the following about why he his Viacom puppet master decided to pass on Palhares:
“Risks already exist for the courageous, world class fighters who either enter the Bellator cage; without adding further unnecessary risks into the mix. Fighter safety is paramount to me and my team.”
That eliminates one destination for the recently disgraced Palhares — MMA’s version of Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Maybe he’ll go to World Series of Fighting, although Jon Fitch has already refused a hypothetical fight against him due to safety concerns. But it seems like Bellator missed a good catch here. Palhares is a talented fighter coming off a win. He had tons of heat, so the signing would’ve generated tons of press — for a Bellator signing, anyway — or at least more press than signing a UFC castaway whose career highlight is getting kicked in the face.
Palhares (or his people) sensed that he was becoming damaged goods. Consequently, he issued an explanation/apology yesterday:
In case you don’t feel like watching the whole thing, here’s the important part — Palhares’ explanation for holding in the submission against Mike Pierce too long:
When the referee took his hand off, it was precisely the time that I was turning to pick up the foot and the heel. When I finished spinning, the referee was able to take his hand off the grid and he fell. When he sat down, the referee had to go to the other side, and that transition took two seconds…the referee stepped in front, and he kept tapping on the back of the referee, not on me. I only saw that in the film, nor have I seen it at fight time. The only thing I saw was the referee coming down on me, understood?
You happy with that explanation? Pierce is still a little upset, especially off the back of a 180-day medical suspension. He told MMAFighting.com that he was still “really pissed off right now.” Pierce has yet to have an MRI to assess the extent of the damage to his knee and ankle.
But what’s going to happen with Palhares? That’s anyone’s guess. The highest rated comment on Palhares’ apology video was on the right track: “Have fun in Jungle Fights, you fucking psycho.”
(We still haven’t tracked down Miller’s latest mugshot, but in the meantime, here’s a photo of him in drag dancing with a sexy cop.)
In his first public statement since he allegedly beat up a woman at his home, former MMA fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller has published a post on his official website apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Now, admitting guilt on the Internet might not be the wisest move from a legal perspective if he intends to fight the charges later. Then again, he might be building an airtight case for temporary insanity. Check out Miller’s statement below, along with our annotations…
HEARMENOW*
To Who it Concerns:
I and I** beg for forgiveness. If I have brought shame or pain upon Anna, her Father, her Mother, her Sister, her children and Shiloh. Know this; JAH THE ALMIGHTY*** SHALL JUDGE AND NO-MAN.
I LOVE YOU.
I APOLOGIZE WITH ALL MY HEART, DURING THE MOST CHALLENGING TIME OF MY life, I ask only for YOU TO UNNASTAN. 33.****
Samakatuwid magsisi at palayasin sa gayon na ang iyong mga kasalanan ay maaaring wiped-out
Mga Gawa 03:19*****
-J. Mayhem Lion******
(We still haven’t tracked down Miller’s latest mugshot, but in the meantime, here’s a photo of him in drag dancing with a sexy cop.)
In his first public statement since he allegedly beat up a woman at his home, former MMA fighter Jason “Mayhem” Miller has published a post on his official website apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Now, admitting guilt on the Internet might not be the wisest move from a legal perspective if he intends to fight the charges later. Then again, he might be building an airtight case for temporary insanity. Check out Miller’s statement below, along with our annotations…
HEARMENOW*
To Who it Concerns:
I and I** beg for forgiveness. If I have brought shame or pain upon Anna, her Father, her Mother, her Sister, her children and Shiloh. Know this; JAH THE ALMIGHTY*** SHALL JUDGE AND NO-MAN.
I LOVE YOU.
I APOLOGIZE WITH ALL MY HEART, DURING THE MOST CHALLENGING TIME OF MY life, I ask only for YOU TO UNNASTAN. 33.****
Samakatuwid magsisi at palayasin sa gayon na ang iyong mga kasalanan ay maaaring wiped-out
Mga Gawa 03:19*****
-J. Mayhem Lion******
//////////////
* “Hear me now” (pronounced “ear mih nah”) is a common expression in reggae/dancehall music, as well as in reggae/dancehall parodies.
** “I and I” is a Rastafari expression used to signify the oneness of God and Man.
**** Unclear. Miller may have been pondering the timeless mystery of the Rolling Rock bottle.
***** As far as I can tell, Mayhem is phonetically transcribing Acts 3:19 in tagalog. Acts 3:19 reads, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” Makes sense.
****** i.e., the Lion of Judah, an Ethiopian symbol for Emperor Haile Selassie I borrowed by the Rastafari movement. When used by an American, it often signifies a disturbing shift in identity.
So yeah, pretty bizarre stuff. We can only hope that one day, after he’s released from jail, Mayhem can look back on this insanity and blame it on sleep-deprivation and energy drinks.
I am deeply saddened to announce that on Friday, April 20, I respectfully withdrew from the May 26 event so that I can request a continuance until my situation with the Nevada State Athletic Commission is resolved.
I cannot express how sorry I am to the Commission, Junior Dos Santos, the fans, the owners and employees of the UFC, my friends and family and anyone else who this has affected.
I absolutely do not believe in, nor do I use performance-enhancing drugs. I am a clean fighter and I will do whatever it takes to prove this to everyone.
I am deeply saddened to announce that on Friday, April 20, I respectfully withdrew from the May 26 event so that I can request a continuance until my situation with the Nevada State Athletic Commission is resolved.
I cannot express how sorry I am to the Commission, Junior Dos Santos, the fans, the owners and employees of the UFC, my friends and family and anyone else who this has affected.
I absolutely do not believe in, nor do I use performance-enhancing drugs. I am a clean fighter and I will do whatever it takes to prove this to everyone.
Prior to the UFC 146 press conference in March, I aggravated an old rib injury on my left side. My doctor prescribed, and I accepted, an anti-inflammatory medication that was mixed with testosterone. I was completely unaware that testosterone was one of the ingredients in the medication. Although I was unaware, I do realize it is my job to know what I am putting into my body.
I respect the Nevada Commissioners and Executive Director Keith Kizer and what they are doing to keep the sport of mixed martial arts regulated and safe for athletes. I look forward to working with them in the days and weeks ahead.
Friends and fans, I ask for your patience as I work through this matter. Please support me. I promise to return to the Octagon soon.”
Alistair Overeem joins a long line of MMA fighters who have claimed ignorance for ingesting banned substances (see also: Cris Cyborg). Do you buy his story? And will it earn him any sympathy with the NSAC?
