Getty Mike Perry after defeating Alex Oliveira at UFC Fight Night: Jacaré vs. Hermansson
UFC welterweight Mike “Platinum” Perry landed himself in hot water after using a racial slur aimed at action movie star Michael Jai White, and consequences may be coming his way.
Last week, a Twitter feud started between the two after Platinum took issue with a video that White posted on YouTube about the late Kimbo Slice. After a back-and-forth, White looked to end the conflict, but Perry fired back with a racial slur.
White has yet to reply to Perry on Twitter, but that hasn’t stopped the MMA community from chiming in. Since he hit White with the racial comment, Platinum has been lambasted online, including by fellow fighter Angela Hill.
There hasn’t been an official statement from UFC about the controversy, either.
As pointed out by attorney Lucas Middlebrook on Twitter, it appears that Perry may be in violation of UFC’s Standards of Conduct, a subsection of the UFC Promotional Guidelines released on Jan. 1, 2018.
The very first sentence of the UFC Promotional Guidelines states: “All athletes, as independent contractors under contract with Zuffa or its affiliates, must adhere to the UFC Promotional Guidelines.”
Then, in the first section of the policy, there is a Standards of Conduct outlining what the UFC sees as “irresponsible conduct,” and how they will go about sanctioning a fighter who violates the guidelines.
A part of the Standards of Conduct reads: “In the event an athlete engages in derogatory or offensive conduct, including without limitation insulting language, symbols, or actions about a person’s ethnic background, heritage, color, race, national origin, age, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation, such conduct will result in sanctions in the form of contractual reduction from the athlete’s purse for his/her next bout.”
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Mike Perry’s tweet to Michael Jai White can be construed as violating this policy. As mentioned earlier, the UFC has yet to comment on the incident publicly, but there is a possibility that the UFC brass has already reached out to him about the situation.
If the promotion does decide to sanction Perry, then as per the Standards of Conduct, he would lose a set amount of money when he fights next. Platinum, however, would have the chance to challenge the punishment.
At the end of Section I of the UFC Promotional Guidelines, an arbitration process is outlined for fighters that are sanctioned for irresponsible conduct.
“Following the imposition of a sanction by UFC, the affected athlete shall have the option to appeal the determination solely through binding arbitration.”
If Perry is sanctioned, he will be given the chance to plead his case if he chooses to.
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