UFC suspends Matt Mitrione for comments about Fallon Fox

Mitrione suspended for abusing Fallon Fox on the MMA Hour

by Ben Heather @benheather

Matt Mitrione the UFC heavyweight who got back to winning ways at UFC on FUEL TV 9 in Sweden on Saturday night when he knocked out Phil De Fries in 19 seconds let rip on Mondays episode of The MMA Hour.

Mitrione chose his interview with Ariel Helwani as his time to open up on his feelings about the transgender fighter Fallon Fox.  Mitrione started with what he called jokes but then that let to full on abuse when Ariel Helwani asked him what he had against Fox, below is a quote of what Mitrione said.

"Because she's not a he. He's a he. He's chromosomally a man. He had a gender change, not a sex change. He's still a man. He was a man for 31 years. That's a couple years younger than I am. He's a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That's ridiculous.

"That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak. And I mean that. Because you lied on your license to beat up women. That's disgusting. You should be embarrassed yourself. And the fact that Florida licensed him because California licensed him or whoever the hell did it, it's an embarrassment to us as fighters, as a sport, and we all should protest that. The woman that's fighting him, props to you. I hope you beat his ass, and I hope he gets blackballed and never fights again, because that's disgusting and I'm appalled by that."

After these comments it didn't take long for the UFC to react and on Monday night they released a statement which said that Mitrione had been suspended for violation of the company's code of conduct. That statement can be found below.

"The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on 'The MMA Hour.' The organization finds Mr. Mitrione’s comments offensive and wholly unacceptable and - as a direct result of this significant breach of the UFC’s code of conduct – Mr. Mitrione’s UFC contract has been suspended and the incident is being investigated. The UFC is a friend and ally of the LGBT community, and expects and requires all 450 of its athletes to treat others with dignity and respect." 

At the time of writing this no comment has been made as to how long Matt Mitrione will be suspended by the UFC.

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