UFC Suspends Matt Mitrione For Transphobic Comments Toward Fallon Fox

The UFC has suspended heavyweight fighter Matt Mitrione indefinitely following transphobic comments he made about Fallon Fox during an interview with Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour” Monday.

Mitrione referred to Fox as a he several times and called her “a lying, sick, sociopathic disgusting freak.”

“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,” Mitrione said. “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 continued to pile it on, saying, “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.”

Mitrione added that he hopes whatever woman fights Fox — if she is allowed to fight in the UFC — beats her so that she’ll be blackballed and will never fight again.

The UFC, which established a fighter code of conduct in January, responded swiftly to the comments.

“The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on ‘The MMA Hour,'” the fight promotion company said. “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.”

Fallon Fox has been a topic of contention in the UFC lately, with fighters split about whether she should be allowed to fight in the women’s division. Former Strikeforce bantamweight champion Miesha Tate has said she wouldn’t want to fight Fox, and Cain Velasquez has said Fox shouldn’t fight women. Fox is under review by the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) to determine whether she would have an unfair advantage over female fighters because she was born a man.

You can watch Matt Mitrione’s interview on “The MMA Hour” below.

Do you think the UFC made the right decision suspending Matt Mitrione for his comments about Fallon Fox?