UFC heavyweight Matt Mitrione had jaws dropping to the floor during Tuesday’s appearance on Ariel Helwani’s “The MMA Hour” as he berated transgendered fighter Fallon Fox.
MMA Fighting transcribed the interview and its undeniable that “Meathead” went off on a hate-filled tangent while on the topic of Fox, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2006 and has compiled a 3-0 record as female mixed martial artist since.
When commenting on the fact that he had seen Fox’s fights before, Mitrione stated he hadn’t “"seen a man beat a woman like that since Chris Brown beat Rihanna. That is exceptional how he just beats innocent, unknowing women like that. Incredible."
That was just the beginning. Helwani inquired why Mitrione insisted on referring to Fox as a “he” … and the quotes speak for themselves.
"Because she's not a he. He's a he," he said. "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. Thirty-one 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.”
Mitrione, a former defensive tackle in the NFL, absolutely slammed Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation for clearing Fox to fight again on May 24 after reviewing her fighter’s application for several weeks.
"That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak," Mitrione exclaimed. "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."
Mitrione is fresh off a definitive 19-second knockout win over English prospect Phil De Fries at UFC on FUEL 9 this past Saturday. Prior to that bout, Mitrione had lost back-to-back fights to fringe contenders Cheick Kongo and Roy Nelson.
Tuesday evening, the UFC released the following statement in regards to Mitrione:
"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."