The UFC suspended Matt Mitrione indefinitely after calling transgender MMA competitor Fallon Fox "a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak" in an interview.
"The UFC was appalled by the transphobic comments made by heavyweight Matt Mitrione today in an interview on the 'MMA Hour,'" the UFC said in a statement Monday evening. "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."
According to Fox Sports, Mitrione made those comments while being interviewed by SB Nation's "MMA Hour" on Monday. His comments on Fox, who was born a man and underwent gender reassignment surgery, came unsolicited during the end of the interview.
"I watched one of the fight videos and holy (expletive), I haven't seen a man beat a woman (like that) since Chris Brown beat Rihanna," Mitrione said in the interview. "That's exceptional how he beats innocent, unknowing women like that."
Mitirione added:
"She's not a he. He's a he," Mitrione continued. "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. That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak."
Fox, 36, is 2-0 as a professional with two first-round finishes. Her license is currently under review by the Florida State Boxing Commission. She did not disclose her transexuality to the commission prior to a contest on March 2.
Voice of the UFC, Joe Rogan, has also voiced out against allowing Fox to fight "natural women."
Rogan unloaded on Fox during his podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience" -- saying, "She calls herself a woman but ... I tend to disagree."
He continues, "She used to be a man ... but now she has had, she's a transgender which is (the) official term that means you've gone through it, right? And she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no f**king way."
"I say if you had a d*ck at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a d*ck. You have bigger hands, you have bigger shoulder joints. You're a f**king man. That's a man, OK?"
"I don't care if you don't have a d*ck anymore," Rogan added ... "You're a man without a d*ck."
