MMA has always been known for being a world where anything goes, and as far as the UFC is concerned, that also applies to what comes out of fighters’ mouths.
But is this the right time to make that change?
Today, Andrea Lee cornerman Tony Kelley was criticized by media, fans and fighters , after he made inappropriate comments about Lee’s opponent VivianeAraujo in between rounds. Kelley spoke to Lee and said that Araujo had been cheating. They’re dirty f******* Brazilians. They will f ****** cheat just like .”
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Kelley did not apologize for his remarks, but later wrote on social media that it was a result from “cancel culture ““. It remains to be seen whether the UFC will publically admonish Kelley who is also a contracted fighter.
Technically, the UFC does have a Code of Conduct policy in place that is meant to address when fighters don’t “act in a legal, ethical, and responsible manner” or if they engage in “conduct detrimental to the integrity of the UFC organization.” But since the announcement of that policy in 2013, there have been few instances where it has been enforced even as high-profile fighters like Conor McGregor, Jon Jones, and Colby Covington have crossed the line, legally or otherwise.
So the MMA Fighting team of Alexander K. Lee, Steven Marrocco, and Jed Meshew is here to discuss a simple question: Is it time for the UFC to start taking its own Code of Conduct policy seriously?
Join the conversation below as we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Lee: I wish we were gathering under cheerier circumstances, but we once again find ourselves having to review some awful fighter behavior and whether or not something should — or will — be done about it. Steven, Steven is the most intelligent person I know. Do you believe the UFC would be able to punish Kelley for these comments?
Marrocco: The UFC has cited its code of conduct in cases where fighters have been punished for using anti-gay slurs, transphobic language, and jokes about rape, so xenophobic and/or racist language is very much in bounds for some sort of sanction. In this case, you had a licensed cornerman using the language, so in theory, the commission could also bring a sanction against Kelley for conduct that reflects a discredit to unarmed combat.
The promotion has a wide latitude when it comes to acting upon its fighters, and whatever it lacks in legal authority to punish, it makes up for with the contracts it binds them to. If the UFC wanted to force contrition, it could simply withhold fights for a certain period or even release Kelley from contract, because that’s the benefit of a one-sided deal. Kelley could take the UFC to court, but it would be time-consuming and costly.
That being said, the key part of your question is “if they were so inclined.” When you have “700 lunatics” under contract, there’s only so much you can do to police behavior outside of the cage, according to UFC President Dana White. We won’t be held responsible for any offensive comments made by fighters. Just make sure that they have a cup and a mouthguard. They aren’t willing to go to the extent they can, but they continue to widen their gap.
Meshew: Is it, though? Is the UFC willing to discipline fighters for any reason? When Conor McGregor threw a dolly through a bus and legitimately injured several fighters under roster, all they did was wring their hands and then use it to promote a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov. Khabib, who jumped into the cage and attacked Dillon Danis, provoked a brawl. White did not put the belt on McGregor. The commissions had issued suspensions. McGregor and Nurmagomedov had a heated online argument months later. McGregor was making offensively racist comments about Khabib’s wife. It looked as if we were at the brink of death threats. Dana told them to stop and got back on their way.
In fact, the only time I can remember the UFC doing anything with regard to their Code of Conduct is when they stripped Jon Jones of the light heavyweight title after he got into a hit-and-run accident with a pregnant woman and it looked like he may be facing some actual jail time. Jones and McGregor have not been issued any reprimand by the UFC, other than a forced apology or a fine.
Lee: Let’s not forget as soon as Jones was in the clear from that 2015 incident, he was immediately placed into an interim title fight against Ovince Saint Preux (and then after a failed drug test cost him that interim title, his next fight was another title fight for the undisputed championship against Daniel Cormier).
Meshew: Exactly. Punishing fighters for non-fight activity is simply not who the UFC is, and given that we are in year four of the promotion falling under the Mickey Mouse banner and no substantive changes have been made, I suspect we’re never getting any.
Marrocco: And, just spitballing here, but doesn’t a Code of Conduct further undercut the argument that these folks are independent contractors? I mean, the more you tell them what they can and can’t do and can and can’t say, aren’t you treating them more like employees?
Lee: That’s a whole other can of worms and fine example of how the UFC’s double talk when it comes to fighter employment status always seems to benefit the UFC more than anyone.
Another reason why the UFC is so lenient in these situations, especially when it comes to those massively popular names that you mentioned like McGregor, Nurmagomedov, and Jones, is that it doesn’t feel like the fans — how to put this delicately — care?
Assuming I’m not overselling the level of fan apathy here, is it fair to say that the public reaction or lack thereof is also responsible for the Code of Conduct essentially being theoretical at this point? Do you think there is a point at which corporate leaders will step in to provide guidance to the UFC on how to handle these situations? Or should they just let White and his company do the job for the time being.
Marrocco: Well, “Mr.
Marrocco: Well, “Mr. When the UFC first trotted out the full Code of Conduct, it was in response to Matt Mitrione’s ill-advised rant about Fallon Fox in 2013. It was then used in foot-in mouth situations such as Nate Diaz’s anti-gay Tweet and Miguel Torres’ Always Sunny In Philadelphia Rip. This was an entirely different period in UFC history. The promotion was still finding its mainstream footing, and it was extremely responsive to this kind of thing. Even though the MMA bubble was their target audience, they cared about the way things appeared to them.
As you both noted, the UFC started to ignore their rules regarding company stars. Fans and journalists quickly realized that there was a completely different set of rules for money-makers. The same could be argued for the UFC’s anti-doping program, where people like Jones seemed to get a lot more leeway than Amanda Ribas when it came to how their cases were handled. All of it ended up being more political than any other, even though they haven’t been promoting themselves as a sports for over a decade. This was the problem.
*]The promotion is going to take a firm stance on certain issues in the Mickey Mouse age. Fighters no longer have the right to display their national flag in an octagon. This is for reasons that have not been explained. So someone up there in corporate has decided that the UFC isn’t totally a place for free speech/expression, no matter what Dana might say. We’ve come up with a different line, whether it’s because some countries don’t like the UFC’s alignment or because one flag upset a broadcast partner. The difference between now and then is there is far less transparency about the whole process, and so we’re left to make assumptions about the UFC and its broadcast partner cares and doesn’t care about, and that’s not always the most fun place to be.
Meshew: Disagree wholeheartedly. I have an enormous amount of fun making assumptions, because, especially in this instance, they’re less “assumptions” and more “clear and obvious guiding principles.” As the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words, and the UFC’s repeated lack of concern when their fighters spew casual bigotry tells us all we need to know. Extrapolating that out, the UFC does not care because they care about the almighty dollar, and fans have not seemed to mind the increasing number of outside-the-cage incidents that have happened.
And again, we’re not that far removed from the days of White making reprehensible comments about Cris Cyborg and Loretta Hunt. All of these things are baked in to the cake.
Lee: Last thing I think we should touch upon here is whether there’s any chance that the Code of Conduct sees a revision anytime soon or at least increased attention from the UFC. It doesn’t link to the official UFC website if you search for “UFC Code of Conduct”. There is no section of UFC.com that takes you to the policy, so while everyone seems to agree that it exists, it’s clearly not something that the company is concerned about people being aware of (it was most recently officially cited in an April 2015 statement regarding the aforementioned Jones hit and run). It’s entirely possible that there have been internal changes to the policy’s usage and language and we just haven’t been told.
With the UFC machine chugging along and churning out 40-plus events a year featuring hundreds of fighters on the roster and passing through it, is it time for them to dust off the ol’ CoC and punch it up given that the current product is in many ways completely different than it was nine years ago?
Meshew: While Dana White is president, I highly doubt it. I was one of the people who thought that Mickey Mouse might finally whip the UFC into a real professional company, and perhaps they have internally, but it has not extended to the contractors, and Disney has not seemed to care a lick, and WME is so dependent on the UFC as a profit machine that anything short of outright Naziism is probably going to be waved aside.
And here is the sad truth: Both parties have it right. The UFC doesn’t need a Code of Conduct. The UFC doesn’t need a Code of Conduct. They are free to continue doing what millions of others do when confronted by something they don’t know how to.
If this is an effective method to get past mass shootings and global warming, as well as the imminent promise that the Earth will become a barren hellscape and an attempted honest to God insurrection by the American government it will work. It will also make it easy to forget that a cage fighter said a bigoted statement while cornering during Fight Night. This Fight Night won’t be remembered for a long time.
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