How is this argument still going on? Floyd Mayweather reacts to Conor McGregor’s latest racism remarks, the ex-boxing champion opened a can of worms here… In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, here’s an update in the seemingly never ending beef between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. The retired
How is this argument still going on? Floyd Mayweather reacts to Conor McGregor’s latest racism remarks, the ex-boxing champion opened a can of worms here…
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, here’s an update in the seemingly never ending beef between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. The retired boxing great lit up the internet with some comments about the UFC featherweight champion, claiming racism was still alive, and that McGregor’s popularity was proof of that. Clearly, these comments were as controversial as they were sensational, and the combat sports world awaited McGregor’s response.
Finally McGregor responded, and he was fired up, blasting ‘Money’ as a jealous has-been and challenging the unbeaten boxing champion to a fight once again.
McGregor’s response;
Floyd Mayweather, don’t ever bring race into my success again. I am an Irishman. My people have been oppressed our entire existence. And still very much are. I understand the feeling of prejudice. It is a feeling that is deep in my blood.
In my family’s long history of warfare there was a time where just having the name ‘McGregor’ was punishable by death.
Do not ever put me in a bracket like this again.
If you want we can organise a fight no problem.
I will give you a fair 80/20 split purse in my favour seen as your last fight bombed at every area of revenue.
At 27 years of age I now hold the key to this game.
The game answers to me now.
5. Media instigators/An Garda Siochana. I apologise for having the air-soft in public. I was simply rehearsing for a potential upcoming film role.
I understand that the more traffic a story can get the more revenue it generates. So I understand and respect that the media must create these stories and these situations even if at times it is at other people’s expense. We’ve all got to eat. And I eat well. So I will not complain.
6. My next fight. What can I say, it’s just another night of easy work for me.
I don’t just own the game. I run it too
It’s not over yet though, as Floyd Mayweather has responded again, and he’s as cocky as usual…
Anderson Silva was about as soft-spoken a champion — both figuratively and quite literally — as the UFC has ever had (except for maybe the guy who replaced him). He rarely used his words as a marketing tool, he refrained from trash talk even in the face of extreme duress, and he spoke through manager Ed Soares more often than not. On the rare occasions Silva did speak, it was usually to troll the MMA media with talks of a superfight, his retirement, etc., which is hard to blame him for when you realize just how misinformed the average MMA journalist is.
In a recent interview with Trip magazine (via Fightland), however, Silva spoke candidly about such topics as the racism he experienced growing up in Curitiba, homosexuality in MMA, and the wave of police brutality against minorities that has struck his native Brazil (among other places). While we’ve always know Anderson to be an incredibly intelligent man, the interview shed some major light on his much concealed past and how it has shaped him as a forward-thinking martial artist today.
Just take the answer he gave when asked whether racism was worse in Brazil or the United States, for instance:
Racism is bad anywhere on the planet…I tend to say that conflict is inevitable in man, that color is just an excuse to unleash that madness, that lack of respect people have for one another. I’m very well set on this racism thing. We’re living in a moment in which racism does not fit in the world.
For the record, my vote is that it’s worse in America. (*dodges beer bottle from man screaming “Giiiit out!”*)
After the jump: Silva drops some equally brilliant truth bombs on police brutality in Brazil, and waxes poetic about whether or not he might wake up gay one day.
Anderson Silva was about as soft-spoken a champion — both figuratively and quite literally — as the UFC has ever had (except for maybe the guy who replaced him). He rarely used his words as a marketing tool, he refrained from trash talk even in the face of extreme duress, and he spoke through manager Ed Soares more often than not. On the rare occasions Silva did speak, it was usually to troll the MMA media with talks of a superfight, his retirement, etc., which is hard to blame him for when you realize just how misinformed the average MMA journalist is.
In a recent interview with Trip magazine (via Fightland), however, Silva spoke candidly about such topics as the racism he experienced growing up in Curitiba, homosexuality in MMA, and the wave of police brutality against minorities that has struck his native Brazil (among other places). While we’ve always know Anderson to be an incredibly intelligent man, the interview shed some major light on his much concealed past and how it has shaped him as a forward-thinking martial artist today.
Just take the answer he gave when asked whether racism was worse in Brazil or the United States, for instance:
Racism is bad anywhere on the planet…I tend to say that conflict is inevitable in man, that color is just an excuse to unleash that madness, that lack of respect people have for one another. I’m very well set on this racism thing. We’re living in a moment in which racism does not fit in the world.
For the record, my vote is that it’s worse in America. (*dodges beer bottle from man screaming “Giiiit out!”*)
You can check out the majority of the interview over at Fightland, but here are the major highlights:
– On news of police violence upon black people, specifically Claudia Silva Ferreira, who was dragged on asphalt by a police wagon in Rio de Janeiro
It was a horrible episode. As I’m from a military family, I think there was a lack of preparation from the police. What we can do is open our eyes and pay attention to the things that are happening every day and try to change that. Protests get us nowhere, we get Carnaval soon after, and then everything’s all right. There’s no point in protesting, if we’re going to have a holiday for the World Cup, and then everything’s all right. We’re entering an era in which we have the opportunity to make changes. It’s important for people to have the conscience to exercise their rights, to protest without violence and aggression, to have objectives. It appears very vague when people are victims of something, they make a fuss in the media and then let it go. Other cases of violence and racism get passed over. I think it’s more important for people to stop, take a step back and observe how much they can change the country, laws—how much better of a country we can have.
– On prejudice towards homosexuals in mixed martial arts
I don’t think there’s prejudice, but there’s a lot of homosexuals in mixed martial arts. There are a lot of them who haven’t yet come out.
[If they were to come out,] nowadays it’s so silly to not express your feelings. As long as you respect people’s spaces, and respect their limits. You have to live your life in peace and no one has anything to do with that.
I would train with a gay man. As long as he respected me, it’s all right. I don’t think much of it. The fact that guy is gay doesn’t mean he’s going to accost you. He can be gay, have a relationship, live among guys who aren’t gay. He can do whatever he wants with his private life.
– On vanity and getting picked on in the gym:
They tease me. Sometimes people think I’m gay. A lot of people have asked me if I’m gay. I answer, “Look, not to my knowledge. But I’m still young, it could be that in the future I’ll find out that I’m gay. I take good care of my things, I put everything in a bag, I use soap, I put on a cream after training. People think it’s capricious. To each his own. Doesn’t mean you’re more man or less man, more gay or less gay.
A doff of the cap to you, Anderson, for your progressive and well-balanced views on such controversial issues — although I must disagree that using cream after training makes you anything other than a gay. That’s right, A GAY.
Now that we’ve gotten all that positivity and insightfulness out of the way, I’d like you Taters to answers these questions as if it was Nick Diaz being interviewed. Funniest comment gets a somethingsomething.
(Believe it or not, it’s possible for two black fighters to generate completely different reactions among MMA fans. / Photo via Getty)
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is arguably the most talented MMA fighter of all time, and has spent the last three-and-a-half years utterly dominating his weight class as 205-pound champion. Theoretically, fans should love this guy. And yet they don’t — a situation that is probably best explained by Jones’s odd shifts in personality, and a streak of regrettablebehavior that never jibed well with his early choir-boy persona. But on yesterday’s edition of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan voiced an alternate theory:
“I don’t know why Jon [Jones] is not more loved or popular than he is. I don’t understand it. In my opinion, I will never miss a Jon Jones fucking pay-per-view. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, he’s cocky. He’s this and [that].’ I wonder what the fuck is going on with that and I’m going to throw this out there, I’m just going to say it: I wonder how much of it is racism. I really do.
“You know why? Because I think they look at him as this cocky black guy and I think a lot of people have an issue with that. I think that if he was a white guy and he was doing the same thing, a la a Chael Sonnen, I think he would be way more popular. Chael was never the successful athlete that Jon is, but I think Chael was way more successful as a promoter than Jon is. Jon has not been nearly as cocky or outwardly braggadocious as Chael was.
“I just always found it odd when everybody would get upset at him and say that they didn’t like that ‘he’s cocky.’ He’s 25 and he’s the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. He’s the youngest ever UFC champion. He destroyed Shogun [Rua] to win the title and I mean destroyed. He threw a flying knee and hit Shogun in the chin five seconds into their fight. I mean, Jon Jones is a motherfucker. He’s a motherfucker, but for whatever reason people have had an issue with that. I know I’m going to get a bunch of hate tweets. ‘Fuck you and your fucking bullshit. What do you got? White guilt? Calling out racism?‘
“I’m probably going to get an equal amount from ‘the Aryan race,’ mad at me for defending Jon Jones, ‘The cocky negro.’ I really think there’s something to that. I think people want a guy who is so physically gifted and young and brash and black and rich, they want him to have more humility or fake humility, as it were. I think Jon’s trying that a little bit and that’s one of the reasons Daniel Cormier was like, ‘You are so fake.’ Cormier was saying that to him because I think he’s trying to counteract how people feel about him.”
To claim that Jones would be more popular if he was white strikes me as a blatant oversimplification. Then again, to claim that race has no effect on how stars get made in MMA is laughable. Since Rogan has everyone talking about it today, I figured I’d share my own feelings about the intersection of race and combat sports, in no particular order…
1. There’s a reason why Rampage Jackson was beloved by fans in his prime, and Jon Jones never has been. The average Jon Jones-hater will claim that it has to do with “realness” or authenticity, but fans only respond to a particular type of realness. Rampage Jackson was a caricature of an intimidating black guy, and people seemed to love him for it.
(Believe it or not, it’s possible for two black fighters to generate completely different reactions among MMA fans. / Photo via Getty)
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is arguably the most talented MMA fighter of all time, and has spent the last three-and-a-half years utterly dominating his weight class as 205-pound champion. Theoretically, fans should love this guy. And yet they don’t — a situation that is probably best explained by Jones’s odd shifts in personality, and a streak of regrettablebehavior that never jibed well with his early choir-boy persona. But on yesterday’s edition of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, UFC commentator Joe Rogan voiced an alternate theory:
“I don’t know why Jon [Jones] is not more loved or popular than he is. I don’t understand it. In my opinion, I will never miss a Jon Jones fucking pay-per-view. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, he’s cocky. He’s this and [that].’ I wonder what the fuck is going on with that and I’m going to throw this out there, I’m just going to say it: I wonder how much of it is racism. I really do.
“You know why? Because I think they look at him as this cocky black guy and I think a lot of people have an issue with that. I think that if he was a white guy and he was doing the same thing, a la a Chael Sonnen, I think he would be way more popular. Chael was never the successful athlete that Jon is, but I think Chael was way more successful as a promoter than Jon is. Jon has not been nearly as cocky or outwardly braggadocious as Chael was.
“I just always found it odd when everybody would get upset at him and say that they didn’t like that ‘he’s cocky.’ He’s 25 and he’s the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. He’s the youngest ever UFC champion. He destroyed Shogun [Rua] to win the title and I mean destroyed. He threw a flying knee and hit Shogun in the chin five seconds into their fight. I mean, Jon Jones is a motherfucker. He’s a motherfucker, but for whatever reason people have had an issue with that. I know I’m going to get a bunch of hate tweets. ‘Fuck you and your fucking bullshit. What do you got? White guilt? Calling out racism?‘
“I’m probably going to get an equal amount from ‘the Aryan race,’ mad at me for defending Jon Jones, ‘The cocky negro.’ I really think there’s something to that. I think people want a guy who is so physically gifted and young and brash and black and rich, they want him to have more humility or fake humility, as it were. I think Jon’s trying that a little bit and that’s one of the reasons Daniel Cormier was like, ‘You are so fake.’ Cormier was saying that to him because I think he’s trying to counteract how people feel about him.”
Claiming that Jones would be more popular if he were white strikes me as a blatant oversimplification. But claiming that race has no effect on how stars are made in MMA is laughable. Since Rogan has everyone talking about it today, I figured I’d share my own thoughts about the intersection of race and combat sports, in no particular order…
1. There’s a reason why Rampage Jackson was beloved by fans in his prime, and Jon Jones never has been. The average Jon Jones-hater will claim that it has to do with “realness” or authenticity, but fans only respond to a particular kind of realness. Rampage Jackson was a caricature of an intimidating black guy, and people seemed to love him for it.
2. Rampage was never what you’d call “humble.” Mike Tyson wasn’t either. Muhammad Ali was the cockiest human being on Earth in his prime, and he’s now worshipped as a combat sports demigod by boxing fans of all races. If you look at the most popular black fighters in history, a lack of humility almost seems to be a prerequisite. So when Rogan wonders if Jones isn’t getting over because he’s a “cocky black guy,” it seems misguided in a historical context.
4. If Tim Kennedy was black, UFC commentators would often comment on the thickness of his thighs. It’s funny how they never do that.
5. If Daniel Cormier was white, UFC commentators would drop the phrase “blue collar” at least twice per fight. It’s funny how they never do that.
6. If Chael Sonnen was black…Jesus, we would barely be able to process that person. At the very least, he’s probably be called a “Muhammad Ali wannabe” who never lived up to his “great physical potential.”
7. “[Roger] Mayweather briefly stylized himself as the “Mexican Assassin” after a string of victories, most by knockout, over a series of world-class Mexican fighters in Los Angeles between 1986 and 1989.” At the time, fight fans were totally cool with this as a method of promotion.
8. Earlier this year, slow-witted boxer Adrien Broner was accused of racism after jumping on the mic and saying “I just beat the fuck out of a Mexican.” I don’t know if that’s progress or not. At the very least, race has become an issue so sensitive that you can barely bring it up without losing your job.
9. Jon Jones crashed a Bentley into a telephone pole, Rampage Jackson smashed his monster truck into a bunch of cars, and they both fight other men in cages for a living. Let’s not pretend that one guy is more or less of a role model than the other.The difference is, Rampage got famous by humping reporters while wearing a chain around his neck and panting — acting like an animal, and playing up stereotypes for entertainment. Jon Jones never did that. I just think that’s worth pointing out.
12. On the other hand, comparing boxing to MMA might be an apples-to-oranges kind of exercise. MMA’s fanbase has been overwhelmingly white since the launch of the UFC two decades ago. Boxing’s fanbase, however, has been historically multi-racial. To get over in MMA, white people have to appreciate you.
13. I would love it if Daniel Cormier became light-heavyweight champion of the UFC, just to see how fans react to him as champion. Will he remain beloved because he’s a humble, hard-working family man, or will he fail to catch on as a draw because he doesn’t “act black” in a way that’s stereotypical enough for white fans to comprehend?
14. Fight fans don’t choose their favorite fighters based on race, they choose their favorite fighters based on personality. Of course, personality is often informed by race.
15. If Jon Jones was white, he would still be the greatest fighter on earth, and there would still be a large contingent of MMA fans who would hate him for being a two-faced weirdo.
16. If you still refuse to recognize Jones’s competitive greatness at this point, it suggests that your personal prejudices — whatever they’re based on — are affecting your judgment of the sport you’re watching.
Jon Jones would probably be more popular if he were a cocky white guy, according to UFC commentator Joe Rogan. The reigning UFC light heavyweight champ has all of the makings of a bona fide star. He’s an unbelievably gifted athlete who is widely regarded as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. In front […]
Jon Jones would probably be more popular if he were a cocky white guy, according to UFC commentator Joe Rogan. The reigning UFC light heavyweight champ has all of the makings of a bona fide star. He’s an unbelievably gifted athlete who is widely regarded as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world. In front […]
The comments on any article or message board post about Tyler Manawaroa’s racist Instagram post are an example of why MMA is where it is in terms of the sport’s public perception.
Some fans are responding with apt disgust, while others are showing why society thinks MMA is a crass, sordid sport followed only by skinheads and low-class morons—the kinds of white, suburban idiots who believe in Reptilians, hoard bitcoins in case the shit hits the fan, worship Ron Paul, and think reverse racism is a real thing.
Here are a handful of highlights from the Bloody Elbow article about Manawaroa’s photo, as well as the post about it on r/MMA—Reddit’s MMA locale that’s replaced the UG as the web’s premier destination for MMA discussion and content—as well as the Instagram photo itself:
The comments on any article or message board post about Tyler Manawaroa’s racist Instagram post are an example of why MMA is where it is in terms of the sport’s public perception.
Some fans are responding with apt disgust, while others are showing why society thinks MMA is a crass “sport” followed only by skinheads and low-class morons—the kinds of white, suburban idiots who believe in Reptilians, hoard bitcoins in case the shit hits the fan, worship Ron Paul, and think reverse racism is a real thing.
Here are a handful of highlights from the Bloody Elbow article about Manawaroa’s photo, as well as the post about it on r/MMA—Reddit’s MMA locale that’s replaced the UG as the web’s premier destination for MMA discussion and content—as well as the Instagram photo itself:
“So? People can’t be racist at 18?”
“Its [sic] been up for weeks and some attention whore happen [sic] to see it and wants to be noticed. Funny how its [sic] just Americans whinging [sic] and complaining.”
“Haha, sounds like you know everything about this kid based off one picture he posted.”
“It was 18 months ago. Not saying it’s right… but it was 18 months ago.”
“Yeah, lets burn him at the stake!!! Because I am positive that myself or anyone else posting in this thread have never done anything wrong or made an insensitive comment in their lives. Downvote away hypocrites!”
“Oh look an opportunity for all you perfect model citizens to get up on your high horses and act like you never did anything stupid when you were a teenager.”
And my favorite:
“BREAKING NEWS: Teenager posts something stupid on social media!
Seriously, who gives a fuck?”
A guy posts overtly racist pictures (yes, there weremore than one) on his Instagram (along with correspondingly racist hashtags) and MMA fans shrug. But who gives a fuck? Fighters are awesome for BEING REAL. Racism is OK because we’re all racist. And besides, he’s JUST A TEENAGER! It’s not like growing up racist will have any impact on his opinions on other groups of people later in life, right? Anyone who gets mad is just a reverse-racist who’s a victim of the pussification of America. And anyone who disagrees with this assessment is just a high-horse, ivory tower, white knight and liar since it’s impossible for someone to not be racist.
This isn’t the first time MMA fans showed their proclivity towards the sordid. Joe Rogan used the slur “faggot” to describe MMA writer Tomas Rios in 2010, an act for which he issued a sarcastic non-apology. A year later, when Rampage Jackson infamously motorboated Karyn Bryant and Yahoo’s Maggie Hendricks called him out, Rogan labeled her “cunty” to the support of MMA fans. And let’s not forget Ronda Rousey tweeting the Sandy Hook conspiracy video and Dana White’s pathetic reaction to it.
Look, other sports haveraceproblems as well as other issues like sexualharassment. But other sports don’t have the historical, “human cockfighting” baggage that MMA does. Football is still esteemed and respected despite players blowing their hearts out to preserve their traumatic brains. Baseball is plagued with PED problems, but it’s still America’s favorite past time.
MMA, at the best of times, is “that UFC shit with the guys rolling around on the floor.” Bad athlete conduct hurts MMA worse than other sports. We can’t tolerate it, nor should we even try to defend it when it’s as egregiously horrific as Tyler Manawaora’s—but I’m sure the UFC’s head of fighter conduct Matt Hughes will deal with the situation accordingly.
Cue people in the comments calling me a liberal pussy.
I posted a pic on instagram that has offended people..im very sorry !! As you can imagine that was never the intention. .as a dark skinned person myself who has delt with racism all my life ,I was making fun of the stereotype that all dark people go to jail..which is obviously not true….hence the irony…but I will remove it and I apologize for offending you.
Jesus Christ, it hasn’t even been 24 hours since a notable MMA figure said something unbelievably stupid. Yet here we are again. This time the culprit is Roy Nelson, who called fellow UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier an “Uncle Tom” during an interview with Ariel Helwani. As BloodyElbow summarizes:
Ariel brought up Daniel Cormier’s recent statements that he wants to kick Nelson’s ass in part “for Dana White.” Nelson went a bizarre direction with his response, stating “Having a lot of black friends. They would say that would be more of an Uncle Tom move.”
Pushed to expand on what made it an “Uncle Tom move,” Nelson laughed and said “That’s what my friends were saying. And I was just like ‘wow!’ Hey it is what it is. You gotta do what you can do for the boss.”
Wow, indeed. While I’m not one to try to rank the degrees of horribleness between different ways of denigrating an entire people…yeah, this is probably the worst thing that’s been uttered this week by pretty much any public figure in American sports. And Nelson — who is managed by Mike Kogan‘s RealTalk Entertainment, by the way — has no lackof competition.
If you’re unaware of what the phrase “Uncle Tom” means and what the implications of its use are, go ahead and brush up on that. Of course, this isn’t the first instance of “Uncle Tom” being used in pugilistic trash talk — Muhammad Ali famously taunted Joe Frazier with the epithet during their rivalry. Afterwards, Frazier would take pride in his contributions to Ali’s physical and mental decline. So despite the fact that Ali had “a lot of black friends” himself, even he couldn’t get away with it.
Jesus Christ, it hasn’t even been 24 hours since a notable MMA figure said something unbelievably stupid. Yet here we are again. This time the culprit is Roy Nelson, who called fellow UFC heavyweight Daniel Cormier an “Uncle Tom” during an interview with Ariel Helwani. As BloodyElbow summarizes:
Ariel brought up Daniel Cormier’s recent statements that he wants to kick Nelson’s ass in part “for Dana White.” Nelson went a bizarre direction with his response, stating “Having a lot of black friends. They would say that would be more of an Uncle Tom move.”
Pushed to expand on what made it an “Uncle Tom move,” Nelson laughed and said “That’s what my friends were saying. And I was just like ‘wow!’ Hey it is what it is. You gotta do what you can do for the boss.”
Wow, indeed. While I’m not one to try to rank the degrees of horribleness between different ways of denigrating an entire people…yeah, this is probably the worst thing that’s been uttered this week by pretty much any public figure in American sports. And Nelson — who is managed by Mike Kogan‘s RealTalk Entertainment, by the way — has no lackof competition.
If you’re unaware of what the phrase “Uncle Tom” means and what the implications of its use are, go ahead and brush up on that. Of course, this isn’t the first instance of “Uncle Tom” being used in pugilistic trash talk — Muhammad Ali famously taunted Joe Frazier with the epithet during their rivalry. Afterwards, Frazier would take pride in his contributions to Ali’s physical and mental decline. So despite the fact that Ali had “a lot of black friends” himself, even he couldn’t get away with it.
I doubt Roy Nelson has any idea what it was he actually said. And I doubt Daniel Cormier is going to take as much offense as Joe Frazier did. But this is entirely unacceptable. Nelson should expect to be hit hard by the UFC for this, maybe with the hardest punishment the promotion has ever handed down. I’m not so sure this is necessarily a fireable offense, or at least I don’t believe it should be, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it becomes one. Nelson’s contract is expiring soon and he’s never been Dana White’s favorite employee. If anything, he’s the perfect candidate for the UFC to make an example of if it wants to claim its personal conduct policy has some serious teeth.
Then again, maybe they’ll keep him around for one more fight. I bet Cormier wouldn’t mind.
