UFC boss stands behind Miguel Torres release, says policy change unnecessary
by John Morgan on Dec 11, 2011

TORONTO – While this weekend's UFC 140 event provided plenty of fireworks for fans, the biggest bombshell of the week was dropped on Thursday night, when Miguel Torres (39-4) was released from the UFC.

Two days after the controversial move generated much debate in the MMA community, UFC president Dana White said he stands firmly behind his choice.

"You can agree or disagree with me, and if you want to see if anybody disagrees with me, go on my Twitter," White told MMAjunkie.com. "I've been getting my head kicked in for two days on Twitter. But the bottom line is nobody has any business making jokes about rape. We're in the fight business."

White released Torres after the former WEC champ tweeted a remark that made light of a windowless "rape van" and how more people would be willing to ride in them if the name was changed to something more agreeable.

Many fans felt the move was unnecessary, especially in light of similar examples of controversial statements by former UFC champions Rashad Evans and Forrest Griffin.

White defended the move, noting that not only did Torres not provide a reasonable explanation but that it also wasn't the first example of an off-color comment from the bantamweight.

"I'm a pretty fair guy," White said. "I've been a very fair guy through all kinds of crazy stuff. If you can't explain yourself, if you can't give me an explanation on why you did something? There's no explanation for that.

"You didn't see Miguel Torres come out – all the fans were behind him, and I love it. I love that all the fans were supporting him and everything else. It's cool. I like to see that, but you didn't see him come out with his explanation on why he said it. There is no explanation for it. And tweets like, 'Your mouth says no, but my roofies say yes,' I don't think that's funny, either – at all. It's not funny to me. Agree with me or disagree with me, it is what it is. I make those decisions, and that's what I chose to do."

Torres has since apologized for his remarks, and White said he has been in communication with the fighter's management team.

Some MMA pundits suggested the situation might prompt some type of personal code of conduct for the UFC's fighters, but White said he doesn't believe that will be necessary. While he says it's unfortunate Torres had to be the test case, White believes the company's stance should now be perfectly clear.

"Let me tell you what – you want to see consistency, let's see if anybody does that again," White said. "Let's see if anybody does it again. I double dare you. I double dare you to send another tweet like that again.

"It is what it is. It's unfortunate. He's a good guy. But it made no sense. It came out of left field. 'It was from a TV show.' I don't give a [expletive]. This isn't a TV show. This is a sport. And the thing is about sending things like that out on Twitter, it's not like you have some forum to explain yourself and to discuss what you meant. There's 100-and-something characters, you know what I mean?

"It's bad news, and it is what it is. People can agree with me or disagree with me. I don't care what anybody thinks. I don't care. It is what it is. It won't happen again."

So how exactly should fighters proceed moving forward?

"I think it's pretty clear," White said. "We're dealing with smart guys. Let common sense prevail."