Torres Fired!!!

[Syn7]

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/...rn=mma-wp10471

Such bullsh!t. what evens said was far worse. not only that, but in real life, off camera, evans is a piece of sh!t, whereas Torres is actually a really good guy. This doesn't make any sense to me.

[Brule]

give these guys a platform and sometimes they'll say stupid crap. it's like everyone else. i don't agree with anything they said, i think rashad's comments were more offensive but hey, white seems to have a love in for him. Ever watch the TUF season he was on, it sounded like he rubbed a lot of the guys the wrong way.

[GeneChing]

If MMA wants to be recognized a respectable sport, MMA athletes must be held accountable just like athletes of any other field.

Torres fired from UFC

By Matt Erickson Times Correspondent | Posted: Friday, December 9, 2011 4:54 pm

East Chicago native Miguel Torres was fired from the mixed martial arts organization Ultimate Fighting Championship after posting a tweet on his Twitter feed that league officials deemed insensitive to rape victims.

Miguel Torres, one of the most popular and successful lighter-weight fighters in mixed martial arts history, has been released by the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

UFC officials on Thursday night confirmed the former world champion's release to The Times. The firing of the East Chicago native comes on the heels of a post Torres made Wednesday on his Twitter account that UFC president Dana White deemed insensitive to rape victims.

"If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn't mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises," Torres posted on his Twitter feed. He later changed the word "rape" to "windowless." But the damage was already done once White got word of it.

"There's absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that," White told SportsIllustrated.com on Thursday. "And the fact that he even thinks that's funny or that's a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me. Again, you're dealing with a guy that's a smart guy, that owns his own business, that's been one of the top fighters in the world forever. And I cut him (Thursday). He's no longer with the UFC."

White, who along with Torres is in Toronto for the UFC 140 event Saturday, was not available to The Times for further comment. Torres on Friday issued an official statement on his website apologizing to the UFC, his fans and anyone he may have offended.

"I have a lot to be thankful for in my life," Torres said. "I have my beautiful wife and daughter, my family, my health, my gym, and in terms of my career, I succeeded to the biggest stage in the sport of mixed martial arts, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I am very sorry for upsetting my bosses at the UFC, and also to my fans and everyone else who was upset by the language in my tweets. I understand it was wrong, and I meant no harm or disrespect."

Torres often uses his Twitter account to display his lighter side, often making jokes that are read by his more than 50,000 followers - a total that has grown by 10 percent in the last two days.

Torres' misstep was the third in a month for UFC fighters in a similar vein. Last month, former champion Forrest Griffin Tweeted "Rape is the new missionary" in response, he told White later, to seeing repeated stories on the news about it, including the scandal involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Griffin told White he was trying to imply how common sexual assault had become in America. Griffin later removed the Tweet from his timeline, apologized publicly and made a donation to a rape crisis center in Las Vegas.

Wednesday, at a news conference in Chicago announcing a UFC on Fox event there next month, former champion Rashad Evans, a Chicago resident who will headline that show, said to opponent Phil Davis in a back-and-forth exchange: "I'm going to put my hands on you worse than that dude did to them other kids at Penn State." Davis is a Penn State wrestling product. Evans later apologized to White for the off-the-cuff remark.

UFC fighters are encouraged to interact with fans on Twitter and can earn quarterly incentives in categories such as "Most Creative Tweet." The last period, Griffin was a winner in that category, getting a $5,000 bonus. After the news conference in Chicago, White told a small group of assembled media members that Griffin's Tweet was misunderstood.

"You're dealing with fighters," White said. "The Forrest Griffin thing was taken out of context. What he said made absolute sense, but Twitter isn't the place to say it. You only have so many characters to explain yourself. He wasn't demeaning (the severity of) rape or saying anything positive about rape."

White, whose own blunt and brash talk has been called into question before, is a regular on Twitter and isn't shy in his use of language. He also referenced the annual UFC Fighters Summit, at which his athletes are coached in areas like dealing with the media, drug and alcohol use, managing their money - and Twitter.

"Every year, we bring guys in and we have the UFC Summit and we go through everything with them," White said. "I don't know if you've ever seen me on Twitter - maybe someone should teach me a code of ethics. I think we're heading into a different world. It's a different time and day and age when you connect with the fans. People say dumb (stuff) sometimes. Fans come on and say dumb stuff. If you say some dumb (stuff), expect to get some dumb (stuff) back. It is what it is. I'm not one of these guys who runs the company and is going to have everyone hide from Twitter."

Neither Griffin nor Evans were released following their public comments.

Torres, who turns 31 next month, said in his statement that he will use the incident as a learning experience.

"Given the chance, I will do whatever it takes to make things right," Torres said. "I am going to learn from this. I think life throws you opportunities that can make you a better person, and so that's what I'm going to do here. That is how I am going to react. I am going to use this to improve myself, and I hope that my fans will continue to support me."

Torres (40-4, 2-1 UFC) last month beat Nick Pace by unanimous decision at UFC 139 to get back in the win column after a controversial unanimous decision loss to Demetrious Johnson in May. Torres went nearly six years without a loss, winning 17 straight fights, before losing his World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight belt to Brian Bowles in August 2009.

If Torres' career with the UFC is indeed over, his fighting options with major promotions are limited. The Chicago-based Bellator Fighting Championships likely would have interest, and the promotion features a 135-pound weight class. But the only other major outlet for the former world champion bantamweight would be in Japan. Torres owns his own gym, Torres Martial Arts Academy, in Hammond. He splits his training time between there, South Florida and Montreal.

[Syn7]

evens rubs everyone the wrong way. if he can be alpha male with everyone hanging off his nuttz, he's a gracious cat. stick another alpha in the room with him and thats all gone. he turns unto an over competetive insecure retard. i hate that knucklehead sh1t. he's just had too many cats tell him how great he is. kid is starting to believe it. take him down to the shore and stick a gun in his mouth and maybe he'd change. prolly not tho. that kind of ego has a real hard time learning the whole humility thang.

[Syn7]

If MMA wants to be recognized a respectable sport, MMA athletes must be held accountable just like athletes of any other field.

yeah, i agree. but the standard needs to remain the same. you cant keep an old cash cow and then push out a kid that was clearly on his way out of the top tier.
torres earned the right to fight out whatever was left of his career. its just that evans brings in more money. there are more people like evans than torres out there. unfortunately.

what evans said was harsh, it was beyond harsh. what torres said left the offending to the imagination. he didnt actually say anything bad, he just alluded to the vans and the names yadda yadda. where as evans actually went out at a live UFC event and said IM GOING TO RAPE YOU WORSE THAN THOSE KIDS(paraphrased but just as harsh).

it doesnt take a panel of morality experts conferring with an ethics commitee to see what was the more egregious offence here... no? am i wrong?

personally, i dont think what torres said was enough. and i do think what rashad said was enough. but at the very least he should keep em both and defend his guys or he should cut em both off.

forrests comment was whatever, not really even worth the mention. off color, thats all. bad taste. clearly they all spoke in bad taste.

so this isnt a story about MMA being accountable for its actions coz it wants to be a big boy. this is about one man being treated different than another for the same old bullsh1t reasons we've been dealing with for millennia. i guess i should expect things like bigotry, xenophobia and straight up quarter chasing in an industry that is pretty much based on selling violence to our youth. i dunno, i just expected better from white. he takes this high moral stance then he gets back on his knees and chooses the dollar. again.

[Dragonzbane76]

I've never liked Evan's after he was the coach on the ultimate fighter with Rampage. Both of them showed what kind of douchbags they could be or they were told to act like that. Either way didn't like it.

[Shaolin]

Everyone hear seems to be bashing Evans for his comments which I agree were immature, stupid and extremely inappropriate, but I don't hear anyone commenting on Forrest Griffin's 'rape' comment. So I wonder, were the previous posters truly offended by Rashad Evan's comments or is this just fuel the express your personal dislike for the guy?

The thread seems to be downplaying Torres's comment because "what Evan's said was far worse." There is no measure of a 'rape' joke. All three athletes made poor choices at their attempts of humor.

Personally I feel athletes in all sports should talk less and perform more. That's what I pay for.

[sanjuro_ronin]

People that get hit in the head for a living saying stupid, thoughtless things?
Will wonders never seize?

[Lucas]

[goju]

the ridiculous thing is the day after he was fired dana makes a prison rape joke on his twitter (facepalm)

[Robinhood]

Encourage them to tweet then fire them, what a loser.

[Syn7]

Everyone hear seems to be bashing Evans for his comments which I agree were immature, stupid and extremely inappropriate, but I don't hear anyone commenting on Forrest Griffin's 'rape' comment. So I wonder, were the previous posters truly offended by Rashad Evan's comments or is this just fuel the express your personal dislike for the guy?

The thread seems to be downplaying Torres's comment because "what Evan's said was far worse." There is no measure of a 'rape' joke. All three athletes made poor choices at their attempts of humor.

Personally I feel athletes in all sports should talk less and perform more. That's what I pay for.

evans and forrest both made rape jokes. evans i found to be worse. and torres was the least offensive of all and he only alluded to bad things where as the others actually said bad things. yet both forrest and evans are still there.

personally, i think white wanted to drop torres anyways. he just wasnt making the same buzz in the UFC that he made in the WEC. he was prolly making more per fight than most other bantams. im not sure how many more fights he had under his contract but i bet it was more than one.


and yeah, the fact that evans has a long history of making distasteful comments and acting like a complete ass does affect my judgement of him and this situation. where as forrest has been a good example to the kids, like torres, and deserves a second chance. evans doesnt deserve another chance. this cat has had dozens of chances. but he makes money. and white is about money. simple. this whole thing is just wrong and dana white has lost respect here. dimished his own clout in the longrun.

[Syn7]

I've never liked Evan's after he was the coach on the ultimate fighter with Rampage. Both of them showed what kind of douchbags they could be or they were told to act like that. Either way didn't like it.

yeah, when they were face to face doing that whole c0cky black thing. i couldnt even watch it. sad sh1t. i feel sorry for anyone who acts that way. fukcing knuckle draggers.

evans was even worse in the season he competed in. first or second season? cant remember. eaither way. evans and koscheck, two massive douchebags. i spent my youth hurting people like that. wrestling wasnt that big here, usually it was football that attracted these overgrown roid geeks. we'd get the smallest cat we could find to lump em out with a rock or a club, that way they had to walk around with that shame that a 120 pound kid did them in. all 200 lbs of their retard asses. anything to just shut them up for a few minutes.

[GeneChing]

Torres welcomed back to UFC
By Matt Erickson Times Correspondent | Posted: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 7:57 pm |

Miguel Torres, of East Chicago, meets the media Wednesday after Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White announced his return to the promotion.

LAS VEGAS | Miguel Torres had reason to celebrate Wednesday, but he wasn't smiling.

Less than three weeks after he was fired from the Ultimate Fighting Championship because of a post on his Twitter feed, the East Chicago native is back in the UFC.

But the gravity of the reason he was let go to begin with - a Tweet deemed inappropriate and insensitive to sexual assault victims - had the normally playful fighter in a very serious mood. UFC president Dana White, after a press conference for Friday's UFC 141 pay-per-view, said he met with Torres on Wednesday, accepted his apology and heard his side of what he has done to make amends since the incident.

"None of this was planned or anything," White said. "Since the incident has happened, he has reached out to every rape crisis center in Chicago and met with the people who run them and sat down and talked to them. He's donated money to all the rape crisis centers. He has been taking sensitivity classes. We've all made mistakes. I've made mistakes, and I'm going to make more. It's not about the mistake you make - it's about how you handle yourself after you make that mistake.

"He went and handled himself like a man, and I respect that. We got together today, he talked to me, and he's back in the UFC."

On Dec. 7, Torres posted a comment on Twitter that he said Wednesday came from watching an episode of the Comedy Central television show "Workaholics."

"If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn't mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises," Torres posted on Twitter. Later, he changed the word "rape" to "windowless." But when White was told about the post, the damage was already done. Torres was fired the next day.

Torres said meetings at rape crisis centers helped him understand how what he posted could affect sexual assault victims.

"I met with five different rape crisis centers in the Chicagoland area and I sat down and met them and was told how what I said hurt people, how powerful my words really were and why it wasn't funny," Torres said. "It was one of those things where I walked in and didn't know what to expect. I was there about an hour and a half at each center and I got educated. There are victims out there, and it hurts people."

Torres told The Times he didn't have any plan for what he would do with his fighting career if he wasn't able to make amends with the UFC after trying to do right by those he may have hurt with the Tweet.

Torres has been fighting professionally since 2000 and fought the majority of the first 30 fights of his pro career in Highland and Hammond.

"I didn't have a backup plan," Torres told The Times. "I knew I made a mistake. I could've reacted a lot of different ways, and I didn't. I grew up where if you get slapped, you slap back. I wanted to lash out, but I stayed quiet so I could think about what I said. What I said was very wrong, and I had to learn from my mistake and become a better person. I took this opportunity to grow, not to hurt. People can say whatever they want, and what I said was wrong and it hurt somebody - it hurt a lot of people, and I had to man up to it."

Torres, who grew up in East Chicago and attended E.C. Central before studying at Purdue-Calumet, owns Torres Martial Arts Academy in Hammond, where hundreds of students - from children to adults - train in mixed martial arts.

Torres told The Times facing his father after he was fired helped him understand the severity of the incident.

"The worst thing with being fired was going to my dad's house on Sunday to eat dinner," Torres said. "I felt like I was 10 years old. I had to face my dad and tell him why I got fired. ... Everything I've done in my life I've done to show him how much I appreciate all the sacrifices he made for me. ... For me doing this, the biggest hurt out of all of this was me disappointing my family and my dad. The look on his face, it was indescribable how I felt. I talked. He didn't have to say anything. My dad doesn't have to speak."

White called Torres' decision to try to make some right out of the incident "honorable."

"When we sat down this morning and he talked to me - what he told me today was awesome," White said. "I was more than impressed, and I respect him very much. He went out and took it like a man, did what he had to do, wasn't told to do anything, wasn't promised anything if he did this. I didn't talk to him at all. He went and did it by himself, and I respect that."

Torres, a former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion, does not yet have his next UFC fight booked.

So, publicity stunt or what? Did this have any impact at all on the MMA community?

[Lucas]

its good he handled his error well though.