Midnight Mania! Fiery free speech protector Dana White defends Sean Strickland’s latest outburst: ‘This is America!’

Welcome to Midnight Mania!

Times have changed inside the Octagon.

It wasn’t all that long ago that UFC and MMA were fighting to be seen as a legitimate sport. Athletes were presented at their best and demanded to uphold a certain level of professionalism. For example: does anyone remember the controversy of transgender fighter Fallon Fox way back in 2013? Heavyweight “Meathead” Matt Mitrione made some aggressive comments on a podcast — not even the actual UFC broadcast — and found himself suspended by the “appalled” organization. Two days later, UFC released a full Code of Conduct for its athletes.

Here’s an excerpt: “Fighters shall conduct themselves in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social convention, and morals, and fighters will not commit any act or become involved in any situation or occurrence or make any statement which will reflect negatively upon or bring disrepute, contempt, scandal, ridicule or disdain to the fighter or the UFC.”

How about a notably banned course of action in the code of conduct? “Derogatory or offensive conduct, including without limitation insulting language, symbols, or actions about a person’s ethnic background, heritage, color, race, national origin, age, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation.”

In 2011, a former champion was fired for making crappy rape jokes on Twitter. In 2021, Israel Adesanya’s similar comments didn’t get a lick of attention from the promotion, even when the New Zealand government did take notice.

At some point, that code of conduct was thrown the window. Former Middleweight champion Sean Strickland’s anti-LGBT comments prior to UFC 297 have reignited the conversation, and UFC CEO Dana White addressed the situation during an appearance on “The TRUTH Podcast” with Vivek Ramaswamy. Nowadays, UFC is a bastion of free speech ... unless you’re hoping to walk out with one specific flag.

“We had a guy early on when the COVID thing started, Tyron Woodley. He came out in Black Lives Matter everything. I think he had Black Lives Matter socks on, covered head to toe in Black Lives Matter,” White began (via MMA Junkie). “At the press conference leading up to his fight, they would ask him a question and he would say, ‘Black Lives Matter.’ They’d ask him another one, (he’d answer) ‘Black Lives Matter.’ I didn’t say s—t to him, knock yourself out …

“This is America. Everybody can have their own opinion. I’m not telling anybody what to do, what to say, what to think, how to feel. We’re human beings in America, do your thing, knock yourself out, I’ve got the platform. People get pissed off, people get offended, people get this and that. We just had it happen with Sean Strickland.

“We’re up in Canada. Sean Strickland said a lot of things. I don’t agree with 95 percent of what this guy says, but it’s his right to say it. And if you don’t like it, tune in on Saturday night, he’s gonna get punched in the face. If you don’t like him, you get to see him get punched in the face, so there you go. Don’t get too upset and don’t take it too serious.”

Strickland ended up coughing up his belt at UFC 297 to Dricus Du Plessis, but the loss has done little to quiet him down. Ultimately, White’s response to the situation clarifies what we mostly already know about the UFC in 2024: anything goes, for better or worse. Although it is pretty weird how the promotion edited Islam Makhachev’s UFC 294 post-fight speech, removing the champion’s call to stop the violence in Palestine before posting his interview on YouTube.

Insomnia

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