Nate Diaz has been suspended by the Ultimate Fighting Championship for sending out a controversial tweet Thursday.
The tweet was directed at UFC bantamweight Bryan Caraway after Caraway was awarded a US$65,000 Submission of the Night bonus from UFC 159 that was originally supposed to go to Pat Healy.
Earlier in the week, Healy announced he had failed his drug screening, testing positive for marijuana, and the UFC subsequently withheld the bonus – Healy had an additional $65,000 bonus for Fight of the Night taken away as well.
“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 (expletive) in the world,” Diaz tweeted.
The three-letter word Diaz used that caused the controversy is considered a homophobic slur by many.
As of Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. ET the tweet had 1,158 retweets and was favourite 641 times.
The UFC deemed Diaz’s tweet was in violation of the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy, which states a fighter can be disciplined for: “Inappropriate physical, verbal and online behaviour (such as inappropriate statements made via e-mail, text messaging or social media).”
Shortly after finding out about the tweet, the UFC released the following statement:
“We are very disappointed by Nate Diaz’s comments, which are in no way reflective of our organization. Nate is currently suspended pending internal investigation and we will provide further comment once the matter has been decided.”
Mike Kogan, Diaz’s manager, defended The Ultimate Fighter 5 winner and former No. 1 lightweight contender, saying the word was not used as a homophobic slur.
“Nate voiced a personal opinion about an incident that took place involving Bryan Caraway in which he chased (UFC president Dana White) all over Twitter to try to get a bonus, which was taken away from Pat Healy, got the bonus, and then had the nerve to go back out there and bash the guy and talk s–t about weed-smoking and how much he hates it and how it’s wrong, which was, at best, a s–t move on his side,” Kogan told MMAJunkie.com.
“Guess what? The word f—-t, at least in Northern California, and where Nate is from, means bitch. It means you’re a little punk. It has nothing to do with homosexuals at all. So when Nate made the comment that he made, he didn’t make it in reference to homosexuals or calling Caraway a homosexual. He just said it was a bitch move.
“How people take it is beyond my control. But that’s what his intent was. And it was a bitch move, for the record. Pat Healy? It’s not like Pat Healy is Georges St-Pierre and he could afford it. That was probably the most money he’s ever made in his life. And because of something he did I’m pretty sure way before the fight … it’s not like he walked out into the cage with (expletive) weed in his mouth. He got fined. He doesn’t need somebody else dwelling over it.
“I’m sure some people got offended, and hopefully this article will explain what his intent was. But how people view it is how people view it. I can’t control that. His intent was not to make a derogatory term toward homosexuals. He used the word to refer to a punk or a bitch.”
Diaz, who is coming off a loss to Josh Thomson at UFC 159, is not the first fighter to be suspended for violating the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy this year.
The promotion fined and briefly suspended heavyweight Matt Mitrione in April for comments he made about a transgendered MMA fighter. The UFC Fighter Conduct Policy was implemented earlier this year.
