Matt Mitrione was suspended by the UFC for his comments about transgender fighter Fallon Fox. (Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The UFC has suspended heavyweight and former Giants player Matt Mitrione for controversial comments he made Monday about transgender fighter Fallon Fox in an interview on MMAFighting.com’s “The MMA Hour” show.
Fox, who competes for small Championship Fighting Alliance, was born a man, but underwent gender reassignment surgery in 2006 and has had hormone therapy to assist the transition from male to female. She is 2-0 as a professional and has been in the news lately because her license was being reviewed by the Florida State Boxing Commission to determine whether or not she’ll be able to continue in CFA’s women’s tournament.
Fox did not disclose that she was a transgender athlete to the commission or her opponents before fighting them. She was eventually cleared and will be able to fight.
“That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak,” Mitrione said of Fox. “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.”
During the unsolicited rant, “MMA Hour” host Ariel Helwani asked Mitrione at one point why he kept referring to Fox as a “he.”
“She’s not a he. He’s a he,” Mitrione 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.”
Hours later, the UFC suspended Mitrione indefinitely and will investigate the remarks. A press release says the organization was “appalled by the transphobic comments” and that Mitrione’s comments were “offensive and wholly unacceptable.”
Mitrione is 6-2 as a pro MMA fighter. He played defensive line in the NFL with the Giants in 2002 and the Vikings in 2005 before making a career change.