UFC President Dana White, wants his fighters to use Twitter, but be careful what you say. Former WEC bantamweight champion and current top-10 ranked 135-pounder Miguel Angel Torres (39-4) has been fired from the Ultimate Fighting Championship after posting a rape joke on Twitter yesterday.
Torres’ “joke” read:
“If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises.”
Torres is known for posting witty remarks, clever phrases and jokes on his Twitter account at @MiguelTorresMMA, but White saw nothing funny about this particular tweet. He told SI.com’s Bryan Armen Graham:
“Now there’s no explanation for that. 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 that’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 may be more a victim of bad timing than anything. Last month, the promotion’s golden boy, Forrest Griffin, drew the UFC’s ire when he tweeted, “Rape is the new missionary.” But Torres said he was unaware of the Griffin situation and only meant the tweet as a joke. White said Torres should have paid more attention.
Then at a UFC on FOX 2 press conference in Chicago on Wednesday, former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans made a remark directed at opponent Phil Davis, who wrestled for Penn State, that he would put hands on him “worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State”.
No punitive action was taken against Evans, but he did get a talking to from White, and the statement drew quite a bit of negative attention. White only learned about Torres’ tweet today, after the Griffin incident and after the Evans incident, otherwise it might be Evans looking for a job.
Torres has since changed the tweet to read: “If a windowless van were called a surprise van more people wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises.” — It’s just a little too late.
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UPDATE: For more on this issue, watch Ariel Helwani’s interview with UFC President Dana White below about why he chose to fire Miguel Torres:
I’m pretty shocked at this. Miguel Torres is a very awesome Bantamweight fighter with tons of experience. Don’t get me wrong, the joke was in poor taste, but why not fine him or suspend him. You got other guys who get way more coverage saying stuff that’s a bit raunchy too.
Yep, the UFC fighters will never have a union…if they did, Torres would still have his job.