Nate Diaz has managed to land himself in hot water with the UFC over a Twitter message he sent out yesterday regarding Pat Healy’s recent suspension for using marijuana.
“I feel bad for Pat Healy that they took a innocent mans money and I think the guy who took the money is the biggest fag in the world,” Diaz wrote on the social networking site.
Diaz was referring to Bryan Caraway who was awarded the $65,000 ‘Submission Of The Night’ bonus after it was taken from Healy due to his suspension.
It’s the homophobic slur used in this message that’s caused a problem with the UFC doing their best to try to stamp out this kind of inflammatory language in the sport which tends to lead to bad press, pressure from special interest groups and gives fresh ammo to those trying to find any way to attack the organization.
Therefore, commenting soon afterwards on the UG forum Dana White indicated that Diaz would be punished for the comment.
“He will be cut or fined for that tweet. F*ckin ridiculous,” White wrote.
Later in the day it was confirmed that Diaz had in fact been suspended indefinitely.
“We are very disappointed by Nate Diaz’s comments, which are in no way reflective of our organization,” a statement from the UFC read. “Nate is currently suspended pending internal investigation and we will provide further comment once the matter has been decided.”
Matt Mitrione found himself in a similar position recently after his comments regarding post-op transexual fighter Fallon Fox and I’d expect Diaz to get the same punishment – a few weeks on suspension and a fine.
However, Diaz’s current manager Mike Kogan hasn’t done his client any favours by actually using the offending word himself as he attempted to defend the fighters actions.
“Apologizing for what?” Kogan asked in an interview with FOXSports.com. “He didn’t use that word in that sort of (homophobic) context. It’s a misunderstanding. If people are uneducated, that’s not my (expletive) fault. It’s slang for being a little b****. The guy goes on Twitter and chases (UFC president) Dana (White) down like a little f** instead of picking up the phone.”
Kogan only recently took over Diaz’s long-time manager Cesar Gracie, and honestly you have to wonder what he was thinking with these comments which are only going to bring more negative attention to this story and put more pressure on the UFC to do something about it.
The fact that he said this to FOXSports.com only makes it worse as a big part of the reason the UFC are trying to clamp down on this behavior is due to the fact that they are now on a major network and as such are trying to clean up their act and become a respected mainstream sport.
