Miguel Torres, former WEC Champion and possible future UFC Champion has been released by Zuffa for a twitter joke about rape. “If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises.” Dana White obviously did not find this at all funny and swiftly gave Torres his walking papers. This also comes off another contraversial comment from Rashad Evans in regards to paedophilia from a former rival Wrestling state to which he has since apologised for. http://mma-boxing.si.com/2011/12/08...s-miguel-torres-media-miscues/?sct=mma_t11_a1 A shame, since Miguel Torres is a highly accomplished fighter and although he seems to be fighting a more "safe" style lately was still a fan favourite. Where he goes now is anyone's guess, but very few MMA organisations have a Bantamweight division...so chances are he'll most likely end up in Bellator after a brief spell in staying low.
He's protecting the franchise. He knows the last thing that MMA and the UFC can afford to be associated with is jokes that make light of rape or paedophilia. Not only are those types of jokes at a public press conference or on Twitter (which pretty much is a press conference 24/7) in poor form... they are also still very taboo for mainstream culture.
Seems to me the Twitter accounts of fighters need the following warnings when they press send (or whatever you do on Twitter). Do you really want the world to read this? Yes/No Really? Yes/No What about Dana White? Yes/No Do you want to keep your job? Yes/No
A straight firing seems a little harsh to me. . Although the comment itself raises a lot of questions on the mindset of Torres too. . Serial humper Rampage better watch out
For a sport that doesn't want to be seen as the preserve of thuggish stupid men, that kind of joke is understandably anathema.
This firing is the definition of double-standard: The UFC has embraced twitter like no other sport's franchise, offering over a quarter million dollars in bonuses to boost adoption of the technology. Among the more compelling, sometimes strange tweets were those from Banatamweight Miguel Torres. Last week Torres posted the following on his twitter account. "If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn't mind going for rides in them." He later removed the tweet above, and replaced it with "If a windowless van was called a surprise van more people wouldn't mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises." "There's no explanation for that," said White in response. "There's absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that. And the fact that he even thinks that's funny or that's a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me. "Again, you're dealing with a guy (who's) a smart guy, that owns his own business, that's been one of the top fighters in the world forever. And I cut him today. He's no longer with the UFC." Torres' firing comes after both Forrest Griffin and Rashad Evans were taken to task for innappropriate jests related to rape. Griffin referred to rape as "the new missionary" in commenting on the crime's prevalence in the media. And Evans told Pen State alum Phil Davis he was going to put his hands on him worse than Jerry Sandusky, who has been charged with rape of a child. Torres told HeavyMMA's Matt Erickson that the tweet was a reference to a line from the FX sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Episode No. 2, Season 4, titled "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis" takes place largely in a van with tinted windows that the characters repeatedly refer to as a "rape van." Torres has worked tirelessly with underprivileged children, and is known respected in MMA as a decent and caring man. While the twitter post plainly shows an unfathomable lack of judgement for an athlete in the public eye, no one thought the tweet was an accurate reflection of Torres' character generally. http://mmajunkie.com/news/26500/ufc...es-release-says-policy-change-unnecessary.mma
Its a double standard if you look at jokes other people have made but its the timing here that's important: UFC just made a deal with FOX and is in the middle of trying to clean up their act a bit (I think they brought in fines for swearing in post fight interviews?) and with Torres its just a case of bad timing. Fighters Only had a good article about the whole thing I'll look for in a bit.
Fines for swearing?? Meanwhile you can watch highschool girls get knocked up on ABC while fool guidos are fist pumping on MTV. What a stupid world we live in....
I don't disagree that it was a timing issue and that Torres is probably being made an example of. But I would like to point to the fact that Evans' comment was made during a press conference promoting a UFC on Fox event and White's immediate reaction was to laugh at it. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PrtGLIBNTE"]Dana White Laughs at Rashad Evans' Penn State "Joke" - YouTube[/ame]
I laughed at it too, its a funny joke and I can see it being something Dana would laugh at when he heard it. He can't control laughing there however whereas with Torres it was something written down then shown to him. On a personal level White may have even found that comment funny but as President he has to do something about it. Question for the Americans on this site: I was reading something that said if this was a joke made in Britain it might annoy some people but it wouldn't garner the same reaction. Know Americe has a wierd conservatism over nudity and such but is this kind of humour seriously taboo too? Fighters only piece http://ht.ly/7U638
Wait, your defense was that the difference is that one was spoken and the other is written? Man, I wonder what would have happened to Jimmy the Greek if he had been a sports writer rather than a television commentator. As for the type of humor being taboo, it entirely depends on the person saying it and where and who they work for. A professional comedian (for example) can say almost anything during an act (with a few exceptions that I personally find ridiculous), but if they are in ads for a company that does business with average America, they might get canned. Look at Gilbert Gottfried. And I've never understood the American media's dislike of nudity from a moral standpoint. Do keep in mind that religious conservatives wield a lot of political power and that most people simply follow the morality and values of the culture in which they were brought up.
No. There is an actual difference between written and verbal comedy but my point was that Dana was there when Rashad told the joke so he can't help laughing with everyoen else and he can't hide that reaction. That wasn't the case with Torres so he can act more disgusted since there isn't footage of him laughing at it.
So he had three pretty bad PR problems to deal with in a short space of time. I imagine these guys are fully aware of what is expected from them and I bet there are clauses in each of their contracts that warn them against behaviour that brings the UFC into disrepute. That didn't work, but I bet Torres getting canned will bring these incidents to a swift end.
Was a line from a tv show he was watching at the time. Ironically he was watching it on Fox Just a victim of timing and circumstance sadly.
I agree it was a stupid thing to do but if he'd done it a year ago I imagine he might've got away with it.
