Tag: Dana White

Dana White Explains His Decision Over Releasing Miguel Torres

Rape is certainly no laughing matter.Unfortunately, Miguel Torres had to learn the hard way. The former WEC bantamweight champion was released from the UFC on Thursday after “jokingly” posting a comment pertaining to rape on his Twitter.”If a rape van …

Rape is certainly no laughing matter.

Unfortunately, Miguel Torres had to learn the hard way. The former WEC bantamweight champion was released from the UFC on Thursday after “jokingly” posting a comment pertaining to rape on his Twitter.

“If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises,” Torres posted.

Torres tried to rectify the situation by changing the word “rape” to “windowless,” but the damage had already been done.

UFC President Dana White made the decision to release the legendary bantamweight from his UFC contract.

“It wasn’t that I thought this was offensive. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and stupid, and yeah, I’m sure offensive to many people,” White told Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com. “That’s not a funny joke to me. It’s just not something you tweet. If that’s your sense of humor, keep it at home around your buddies and yourself.”

While Torres is the only fighter to be fired after making such comments, former light heavyweight champions Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin have also come under heat for making light of rape.

At a pre-fight press conference for UFC on Fox 2, Evans went for the juggler in a heated exchange with rising light heavyweight Phil Davis, an alumni of Penn State.

“I guarantee you’re going to be the first one to take a shot because I’m going to put those hands on you worse than that dude did to them other kids at Penn State,” Evans stated.

In November, a controversial comment posted on Twitter left Griffin in hot water as well.

“Rape is the new missionary,” posted Griffin.

With similar instances involving major UFC superstars, why was Torres the only fighter released? Is there some form of meter that determines what comments are more offensive?

“We don’t come out in the UFC with these canned statements that are written by our lawyers. We handle everything on a case by case basis with the idea that people are gonna make mistakes, and it’s how you handle yourself after you make a mistake,” said White.

Griffin’s comment pertained to the media’s obsession with a plethora of rape incidents including the case of Jerry Sandusky, a former assistant coach at Penn State charged with child molestation.

In Evans’ case, his comments were directed at Davis, an upcoming opponent with a connection to Penn State.

Torres’ tweet came out of left field, and so far, his only explanation is that the comment was meant as a joke. It was certainly an outlandish comment that deserved some form of discipline, but did Torres deserve to lose his job?

The MMA community has lit up over the past 24 hours with passionate fans lashing out at the UFC and concocting petitions to bring back Torres. Despite the pleas of fans, White isn’t budging in his stance. The UFC has always done business a certain way, and a few petitions won’t change White’s business philosophy.

“I don’t give a (expletive) what people think. I really don’t. If you haven’t figured that out in the last 10 years, then you’re pretty thick headed,” White said.

“The bottom line is nobody is going to persuade me, and nobody is going to pressure me into attacking my own guys and going after my guys because I feel like it’s what should be done. I’m going to handle this thing the way that I want to. I’m not going to be pressured by the media, by the fans or anybody else to go in and attack my guys when they make a mistake.”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Miguel Torres Apologizes for Offensive Tweets That Cost Him His Job

Filed under: UFCIt’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for Miguel Torres, the former bantamweight champion of the world who suddenly lost his job in the UFC after posting bizarre messages on Twitter that appeared to make light of rape. On Friday Torres posted …

Filed under:

It’s been a whirlwind 24 hours for Miguel Torres, the former bantamweight champion of the world who suddenly lost his job in the UFC after posting bizarre messages on Twitter that appeared to make light of rape. On Friday Torres posted a message on his personal web site apologizing and saying he hopes to get a second chance.

“I have a lot to be thankful for in my life, I have my beautiful wife and daughter, my family, my health, my gym, and in terms of my career, I succeeded to the biggest stage in the sport of mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship,” Torres wrote. “I am very sorry for upsetting my bosses at the UFC, and also to my fans and everyone else who was upset by the language in my tweets. I understand it was wrong, and I meant no harm or disrespect. Given the chance, I will do whatever it takes to make things right. I am going to learn from this. I think life throws you opportunities that can make you a better person, and so that’s what I’m going to do here. That is how I am going to react. I am going to use this to improve myself, and I hope that my fans will continue to support me.”

The apology from Torres did not include any explanation for what motivated his tweets, although the tweet that garnered the most attention was a reference to the ribald television show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

In that tweet, Torres wrote, “If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises.” It apparently didn’t dawn on Torres that on Twitter, he wasn’t just having a private conversation with a fellow fan of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He was broadcasting to the 50,000 or so people who follow him, not to mention the tens of thousands more who saw his tweet elsewhere. Torres offered no context for that “joke” and the majority of the people who read his tweet had no idea why he would tweet such a message.

That included UFC President Dana White, who found out about the tweet during a media interview and reacted swiftly by cutting Torres from the UFC’s roster. That rash decision by White has in turn been criticized by some who said that White overreacted, and by many who have noted that the UFC inconsistently applies its standards about what’s suitable for public discourse and what isn’t.

What’s unclear now is whether Torres’s apology will get him back into the UFC’s good graces, or whether his social media lapse in judgment will require him to find another promotion if he wants to keep making a living as an MMA fighter.

 

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Crazy Enough to Be True: Ten Wild MMA Predictions for 2012


(“I appreciate the recognition, but really, this award belongs to CagePotato. Get up here, guys.”)

By Jason Moles

This time last year, I gave you a list of predictions that really created a stir. I boasted that the UFC would host an event in Mexico and be legalized in New York. Man, was I ever wrong about that. I apologize. But I also said that Dana White would coin a new phrase, land a network TV deal and that a famous athlete would cross over into the world of mixed martial arts. Not bad, eh? 2012 is quickly approaching so get the champagne on ice and let’s get to those wild predictions…

1. FOX will reprimand Dana White for his inevitable off-handed comments.

“Faggot“, “f*cking retarded”, “dumb bitch” — these are all things that have been uttered by the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White. The UFC may be MMA’s pinnacle and FOX’s diamond in the rough, but if the promotion is ever to secure a spot in the mainstream, it needs to display more control over its mouthpiece and his tongue. Advertisers tend to frown upon such public displays of hostility and bigotry. When Uncle Dana slips again and gives someone an earful, you can be certain that it won’t go unpunished as it has in the past. This goes for you too, Rogan and Rashad.

2. A champion will test positive for a banned substance.


(“I appreciate the recognition, but really, this award belongs to CagePotato. Get up here, guys.”)

By Jason Moles

This time last year, I gave you a list of predictions that really created a stir. I boasted that the UFC would host an event in Mexico and be legalized in New York. Man, was I ever wrong about that. I apologize. But I also said that Dana White would coin a new phrase, land a network TV deal and that a famous athlete would cross over into the world of mixed martial arts. Not bad, eh? 2012 is quickly approaching so get the champagne on ice and let’s get to those wild predictions…

1. FOX will reprimand Dana White for his inevitable off-handed comments.

“Faggot“, “f*cking retarded”, “dumb bitch” — these are all things that have been uttered by the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White. The UFC may be MMA’s pinnacle and FOX’s diamond in the rough, but if the promotion is ever to secure a spot in the mainstream, it needs to display more control over its mouthpiece and his tongue. Advertisers tend to frown upon such public displays of hostility and bigotry. When Uncle Dana slips again and gives someone an earful, you can be certain that it won’t go unpunished as it has in the past. This goes for you too, Rogan and Rashad.

2. A champion will test positive for a banned substance.

This is not a repeat of 2002, 2003, or 2007. With nearly twenty champions total in the three largest MMA promotions, it’s not completely absurd to think that one of them has to be on something. I’d like to think that the warriors I pay money to watch fight are in such great shape and so shredded by drinking milk, taking their vitamins and doing lots of situps…but if I allowed myself to believe that I might as well believe that “you could punch a man 300 times, he hits you 11 times, wraps his legs around your head for eight seconds and they declare him the winner.” We shouldn’t point any fingers. (At least not yet, anyway.)

3. Brock Lesnar will retire from Mixed Martial Arts.

How many times can you tell the Grim Reaper “I’ll be ready when I’m damn good and ready”? No, not that one, but that might be a good fight. Problem: Brock Lesnar’s body is suffering from a serious illness, he really doesn’t like to get punched in the face, and he HATES being away from home. Solution: Retire from MMA, have Vince McMahon pay you millions to star in the next direct-to-DVD WWE film conveniently filmed in Lesnar’s backyard and make an appearance every now and then. Sure sounds a heck of a lot better than training like this all the time.

4. Anderson Silva will vacate his title to tour the world with Justin Bieber.

Look, it’s easier for me to type that than it is to suggest the possibility of Anderson Silva losing in 2012. Silva isn’t expected to fight until sometime in the summer when half the year is in the books. Champions rarely defend their title more than once a year and with his projected timeline, Silva may only step foot in the cage once before the world comes to an end. Given the fighters who are currently “in the mix” and the probability of a fully healthy Spider losing to an American Gangster, a Count, or even a Filipino Wrecking Machine, I can say with certainty that the UFC middleweight champion will remain Anderson Silva ad infinitum.

5. Nick Diaz will buy a house.

Following another big payday against Carlos Condit, Diaz will take some time off and finally enroll in those “Buying a House” classes at the local community college. For his thesis project, he will purchase a modest bungalow in the good part of Stockton. After that, he’ll have even more reasons to complain about not being paid enough, including property taxes and lawn maintenance.

And Now He’s Fired: Miguel Torres Cut by UFC After One Rape Joke Too Many


(Torres following his unanimous decision loss to social media. / Photo via ESPN)

Miguel Torres — former undisputed WEC bantamweight champion and die-hard fan of rape jokes — has been released by the UFC. Dana White confirmed the firing yesterday evening, telling SI.com, “his career with us now is over.”

The reason for Torres’s release was a tweet that reportedly read, “If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises.” Torres later removed the tweet and replaced it with an edited version. White was informed of the tweet second-hand by Michael Landsberg and made the decision to fire Torres shortly after.

So why is Torres being made an example of, when Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans made similar off-color statements recently? Basically, it’s because he didn’t have a good enough explanation.


(Torres following his unanimous decision loss to social media. / Photo via ESPN)

Miguel Torres — former undisputed WEC bantamweight champion and die-hard fan of rape jokes — has been released by the UFC. Dana White confirmed the firing yesterday evening, telling SI.com, “his career with us now is over.”

The reason for Torres’s release was a tweet that reportedly read, “If a rape van was called a surprise van, more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises.” Torres later removed the tweet and replaced it with an edited version. White was informed of the tweet second-hand by Michael Landsberg and made the decision to fire Torres shortly after.

So why is Torres being made an example of, when Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans made similar off-color statements recently? Basically, it’s because he didn’t have a good enough explanation.

As Dana White tells Ariel Helwani in a video interview released last night, Griffin explained to him that his “rape is the new missionary” tweet was intended to be a commentary on the prevalence of sex crime coverage on television, while Rashad’s Jerry Sandusky reference was an attempted dig at Phil Davis’s alma mater gone too far. (Dana claims he couldn’t hear the line during the press conference because the microphones were going in and out, though he laughed anyways.)

The problem with Torres’s “rape van” tweet was that it had no other purpose, context, or explanation, other than allegedly being a quote from either It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia or Workaholics. Said Dana: “That’s not a funny joke to me. That’s just not something you tweet. If that’s your sense of humor, keep it at home around you and your buddies and keep it to yourself. It’s not something that you put out on twitter. And there’s no explanation for it. I can’t make any sense of it. And enough is enough. When you’re getting ready to twitter, or you’re getting ready to say something, think about what you’re gonna say, think about what you’re gonna tweet, and use a little common sense…that tweet makes no sense, and the fact that you say it was a joke bothers me even more.”

White goes on to explain that this is the first thing that Miguel Torres has done to offend him — he considers Torres a good guy and a great champion otherwise — and he would have been fired even if this situation didn’t occur on the heels of the Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans controversies. (For the record, Rashad won’t receive any punishment for his own tasteless joke.)

Torres isn’t the first fighter to be fired by the UFC due to an Internet posting. I mean shit, we were just talking about War Machine. But now that every other UFC fighter is trying to be a part-time comedian in order to nab a Twitter performance bonus, a new message needed to be sent: Use your head, because the world is watching.

MMA: Dana White’s Double Standard Knocks Miguel Torres out of the UFC

First of all, I like Miguel Angel Torres, and I’ll always respect him despite his often-ridiculous tweets, but even I’ll say I can see why Torres got released from the UFC.Yes, MMA is popular right now, but it’s not yet at a stage where it can handle a…

First of all, I like Miguel Angel Torres, and I’ll always respect him despite his often-ridiculous tweets, but even I’ll say I can see why Torres got released from the UFC.

Yes, MMA is popular right now, but it’s not yet at a stage where it can handle a lot of negative publicity or any sort of negative attention, so for that, I see why Dana White might have followed through as per his standard and opted to cut Torres.

After all, Torres is a professional athlete and, given the past history of athletes taking to Twitter to tweet eventual nuggets of controversy, keeping surprise vans and rape to oneself is common sense.

However, so is not being the same hypocritical “holier-than-thou” type of person that one claims to be unable to stand, whether on or off Twitter.

If watching one’s Tweet content is common sense, then shouldn’t it be common sense that a draw like Torres be reprimanded for his tweet before apologizing, as opposed to being cut when Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans have said considerably worse or similar things and are still on the roster?

I understand Forrest has helped support charities that teach others about the dangers of rape, and I know Rashad Evans said he talked to Dana White about the Penn State comment he made at Wednesday’s UFC on FOX 2 press conference, but for them to get fined while Torres gets cut is an abominable act by a man who is living by a double standard.

While it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, it’s sickening on all accounts from a personal standpoint, as Torres has followed suit with Griffin and Evans, who were noted for saying things in the general category but were not released.

Maybe the statement of Torres not knowing about Griffin or Evans is what caused the release because as a person in the same profession as both TUF winners, you have to pay some attention to the situations around you, and Torres, like Evans, trains with the all-star assembly-line of fighters known as The Blackzillians. But let’s not forget one thing:

Torres quoted a TV show, “Workaholics” (earlier, it was thought to be a quote from Danny Devito’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”).

Evans, on the other, knocked on Phil Davis by saying he’d touch Davis worse than Jerry Sandusky or Joe Paterno did to those boys at Penn State, and the Penn State sex scandal has been an increasingly hot topic for a month now, and this issue is not one that has gone away yet.

Evans claims—or at least Dana says—that he made the mistake of letting his mouth go, but if he were truly sorry, wouldn’t Evans have found a way to diss Davis?

I mean, it sounds like that’s Dana’s current reaction to Torres’ tweet is all-in-all saying “If Torres were really joking, he’d have kept that to himself, even if it did come from a TV show,” right?

Whatever the case, Dana’s double standard is ridiculous and atrociously inconsistent. If one fighter is fined or reprimanded in some way for a tweet concerning rape vans but he is NOT cut, then that is a trend that should stay consistent, and while there’s no real excuse for Torres’s initial tweet, there’s are few more and much less excuses for Dana White hypocrisy in this case.

If he has any issue with the consensus opinion which favors a re-signing of the former WEC Bantamweight Champion, he can either choose to refuse to give the fans what they want, as he’s already done by releasing Torres, or he can do the right thing, stick to his word about having the best fighters in the world instead of feeding us low-grade chumps, and get Torres back where he belongs.

Dana White has given us Karo Parisyan’s return and he gave us Nick Diaz vs. BJ Penn at UFC 137, even though he knew that we knew that he wanted to axe Diaz for missing those pressers.

So now, Mr. White, it’s your turn to give us what we want … that is, of course, unless you’ve finally stopped caring about the consumers that took the time to give a damn about your product.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Dana White’s Most Outrageous Quotes from 2011

UFC supremo Dana White could be called anything but self-effacing; if anything his penchant for shooting from the hip has landed him in hot water on more than one occasion.One minute he comes across as the eloquent CEO of a going concern, the next he&r…

UFC supremo Dana White could be called anything but self-effacing; if anything his penchant for shooting from the hip has landed him in hot water on more than one occasion.

One minute he comes across as the eloquent CEO of a going concern, the next he’s on an F-bomb tirade ranging from the asinine to the downright “no he didn’t just say that” shock look as he holds court with the world’s media.

As things stand, White is the Chael Sonnen of the business world—they’re both adept at selling a product; hard sell no doubt.

Their need, however, to go beyond, what sometimes is socially unacceptable is why these master rhetoricians of MMA’s showbiz world are both loathed and loved in equal measure.

Still, let’s take a look at some of Uncle Dana’s most outrageous quotes of 2011.

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