UFC bantamweight Miguel Torres “has been dropped by the organization on the heels of his tweet this week about a ‘rape van,’” according to Bryan Armen Graham of SI.com. Torres’ tweet read, “If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone like surprises.” But UFC President Dana White said that the details “regarding insensitive remarks made by a remorseful Rashad Evans were such that Evans won’t suffer a similar fate.” Evans said to opponent Phil Davis, a former Penn State wrestler, in a press conference, “I’m going to put my hands on you worse than that dude did them other kids at Penn State.” White said of Evans' comment, “It was the stupidest thing he could have said and he absolutely agrees. … We talked on the phone, he gave me his explanation, he said, ‘I’ll do whatever it takes, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend anybody.’” However, White said of Torres’ tweet, “There’s no explanation for that. There’s absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that. And the fact that he even thinks that’s funny or that’s a joke, it disturbs me.” Graham noted that UFC "has been praised for being so progressive and forward-thinking with social media" and asked White if the league is now "seeing the perils of that." White: "Just because these guys are professional athletes or whatever, everybody’s going to have an opinion on something, and not everybody’s going to get along. I’ve had my words with fans on Twitter too. When people come on Twitter and say dumb s— to you, expect to get some dumb s— back. But for a guy to go out and talk about a 'rape van' being a 'surprise van,' there’s no defense for that” (SI.com, 12/8).
TWITTER RANT: In Toronto, Valerie Hauch noted when a UFC fan “tweeted his complaint about Canadian UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre being injured and unable to fight,” White responded via Twitter, “I hope you get kicked in the nuts twice today.” Darius Ross, who saw the tweet exchange, jumped in and said via Twitter, “This is why UFC cannot be given a platform in Toronto schools,” in reference to the UFC's current anti-bullying campaign in Toronto. White responded, “Then why do you follow me? Hide ur children crybaby!!! I will be in Toronto in two hours!!!” Ross then tweeted back: “Should I consider that a threat?” To which White responded: “omfg, lol, u are weird” (TORONTO SUN, 12/9).
