A two-week span between UFC cards can often feel like an eternity.
Fights are rarely announced, promotional material is hard to come by and waiting for the first fight on the next card feels like waiting for Christmas as a child.
This week was definitely an exception.
Bryce Mitchell has been known for his antics and comments both in and out of the octagon. He made headlines in 2018 when he punctured his scrotum with a drill in his pocket and is recognized as one of the more outspoken fighters on the UFC roster.
He previously said that he would take a bullet for Donald Trump, explained that he “didn’t believe in seatbelts,” questioned the existence of gravity and claimed that the Earth is flat.
Until now, many fans dismissed his comments as those spoken by someone who’d been repeatedly hit in the head for his entire life, never taking them seriously.
This week, however, on the first episode of his podcast “ArkanSanity,” Mitchell went on a pro-Hitler, Holocaust-denying tirade, adding that he supported the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
“I honestly think Hitler was a good guy, based upon my own research… he was a guy I’d go fishing with,” he said in the YouTube video that has since been removed from the platform.
To the horror of many viewers, Mitchell continued to defend his point, adding more antisemitic and homophobic remarks.
Though UFC CEO Dana White swiftly addressed the comments and rebuked Mitchell’s claims after Thursday’s PowerSlap event, he explained that no action would be taken, citing free speech protections.
Mitchell’s comments would almost certainly cause him punishment in any other business. In Canada and various European countries, his words could have been grounds for arrest.
In the ever-accepting UFC landscape, all we can hope for is the fighter getting “his ass whooped on global television,” according to White.
Regardless of the CEO’s view on the line between free speech and hate speech, letting a fighter say something this atrocious and go unpunished is a terrible decision.
While Mitchell’s ramblings can be chalked up as a one-off and not something that represents the views of the UFC as a whole, it’s harder to ignore when arguably the sport’s biggest superstar makes them.
The day after White’s comments, Conor McGregor tweeted at his rival Khabib Nurmagomedov in a racist, slur-laden barrage.
McGregor and Nurmagomedov had renewed their old rivalry through Paul Hughes’ fight with Usman Nurmagomedov, each backing a fighter in their Professional Fighters League main event spot on Jan. 25.
Hughes distanced himself from McGregor after the fight, and then McGregor and Nurmagomedov traded insults online, culminating in the now-deleted tweet.
McGregor hasn’t fought since 2021 but has remained in the headlines since. He’s been embroiled in a civil sexual assault case, in which he was found liable at the end of 2024.
Unlike Mitchell, McGregor’s comments went unaddressed by UFC leaders.
White has repeatedly deflected questions about repercussions for the superstar, even after the result of the earlier-mentioned case. White knows any return fight would still draw record numbers despite of — and maybe even because of — the growing controversy, but McGregor’s return to the UFC seems almost impossible at this point.
It’s disturbing to see the pair’s words go continuously unpenalized.
It seems that the bar for hate speech in and around the UFC grows higher daily, more space being made for it under the umbrella of “free speech.”
This hasn’t always been the case. White cut former fighter Miguel Torres in 2011 for a tweet deemed to be offensive and disturbing, but now will not pursue similar action with McGregor or Mitchell.
The UFC has no shortage of fighters with conservative views, and the sport’s fanbase tends to lean the same way. Mitchell’s tirade reached a new extreme, but, with White’s current views and recent appearance at the presidential inauguration, there’s no telling what could be said without consequences by the UFC.
Mixed martial arts is a sport built on inclusivity. Gracie jiu-jitsu was created in the 1920s to allow more people to participate in martial arts by giving smaller fighters a way to defend themselves against an opponent of any size.
The UFC should be shared with as many people as possible, but for every Bryce Mitchell and Conor McGregor, the sport becomes increasingly exclusive and hateful.
In order to preserve the UFC as a safe space for anyone to enjoy the fights, Dana White should have made an example of the two. Instead, the non-action nearly resembles an endorsement as more people question their place in the community.
