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It should come as no surprise, but one of the world’s biggest fight promoters does not believe in curtailing fighting words said by his fighters, even when it comes to bigotry.
On Monday at the weigh-ins for the Contender Series, an ugly moment took place when, after failing to make the bantamweight limit, Oron Kahlon called his opponent Javid Basharat a “terrorist” during their face off. Basharat is originally from Afghanistan and was understandably unhappy with the comment. Basharat turned that anger into motivation though and when the two faced off last night, Basharat dominated Kahlon, securing a third-round submission after battering Kahlon for the first 10 minutes of the fight. And according to UFC President Dana White, that’s how he believes incidents like this should be handled.
“Are we gonna do anything? It got done tonight,” White said in the post-fight press conference. “You know what I mean? It’s the beautiful thing about this sport. I say it all the time: This is not a nice sport. This is a very rough sport. We say a lot of mean things to each other, you know, and justice gets served at the end of the day.
“Listen, when you have a situation like that, the best way to solve the problem is you fight, and you fight legally. You get paid to do it, and that’s what happened tonight.”
White’s laissez-faire attitude flies directly in the face of the UFC’s own Code of Conduct policy which states that “fighters shall conduct themselves in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social convention, and morals” and further prohibits the use of “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.”
While the Code of Conduct does not technically apply to Contender Series fighters given that they are competing for a UFC contract, the UFC’s failure to enforce these standards has become the topic of much conversation recently. Following Conor McGregor’s altercation with Machine Gun Kelly at the MTV Awards, Dana White said that he had no intention of reprimanding McGregor because he has “700 f*cking lunatic under contract” and “crazy sh*t happens in the fight business,” and that seems to be the fundamental stance of White: there is no such thing as too far.
“No, not in this business I don’t (worry about things going too far)” White said. “If you look, you can add that to the pile of some pretty nasty things that have been said in this sport. And not just this sport – boxing, I’m sure Muay Thai, kickboxing, you name it. Mean things are said. In this insanely politically correct world we’re living in, this is one place that is not.”
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VIDEO STEW
UFC 267 Media Day.
Contender Series announcements.
Embedded.
The Rise of Khamzat Chimaev.
PFL Championship preview.
Kayla Harrison.
LISTEN UP
UFC Unfiltered. Interviews with Michael Chandler and Herschel Walker.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
Good run.
Exactly 10 years ago today @ the UFC 137 presser, @danawhite introduced me as the newest UFC play-by-play commentator. Moved the family to Vegas 48 hours later and didn’t look back. Been an incredible road thus far. Old now…but grateful.https://t.co/hEilafdY5C
— Jon Anik (@Jon_Anik) October 27, 2021
This is where Mike Perry belongs.
Thrill of the hunt ! Who is it gonna be ? https://t.co/Vu43J9sIVR
— Platinum Mike Perry (@PlatinumPerry) October 27, 2021
A whole new person.
I hate when people come up to me and ask “so how was fighting Israel Adesanya”… tf , Blonde Brunson wouldn’t know a thing about what you’re talking about . Check back in a couple of months!
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) October 26, 2021
Michael Chandler chasing the money, not the title.
After I take care of business November 6. https://t.co/nZgxMcfF0i
— Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) October 26, 2021
I can’t tell if DC is trolling or not.
I never said before that he wasn’t , my points stayed the exact same! @arielhelwani you’re starting to piss me off! 2009-2012 based on facts I stand on my point. I ain’t walking shit back! https://t.co/M7MDxB5YwO
— Daniel Cormier (@dc_mma) October 26, 2021
That’s a lot of excuses.
I still don’t have a fucking card, but @jimmyflick beats off to his every night….who had one fight, and dipped out. @PaniniAmerica https://t.co/C2vKhLq2Fv
— Cody Durden (@Cody_Durden) October 26, 2021
You also don’t have a win in the UFC https://t.co/kyd2WjbA4Y
— jimmy flick (@jimmyflick) October 26, 2021
Dude you were getting your ass whoooppped and I had a torn acl two weeks before we fought, pink eye, and a broken toe. Also my first UFC fight was against a guy who dominated you then TKOed your ass. Lol stay retired quitter! https://t.co/DiVHBXZ7KL
— Cody Durden (@Cody_Durden) October 27, 2021
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
N/A.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So if Oran Kahlon had won, would that have been justice? What the hell is the point of a Code of Conduct if you’re going to directly say you won’t enforce it? The thing that is frustrating here is that even Dana White would admit that it’s not okay for his fighters to say absolutely anything. If some dude was out there preaching genocide and winning fights, he would step in. Just extremely dumb.
Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.
EXIT POLL
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