UFC PRESIDENT DANA WHITE has encouraged all of his fighters to be open about their sexuality and said that his company’s gay employees have nothing to fear.
In response to claims that the UFC is hostile and homophobic, White said that there is “probably more than one” gay fighter in the 300-strong organisation and that he would love for them to come out, Yahoo! Sports reports.
“If there’s a gay fighter in the UFC, I wish he would come out,” White said.
I could care less if there’s a gay fighter in the UFC. There probably is and there’s probably more than one. It’s 2012. Give me a break.
The comments come as a dispute between the UFC and America’s Culinary Workers Union continues.
The union, which is leading the lobby against mixed martial arts legalisation in Nevada, opposes UFC’s use of non-unionised casinos and activists have accused White and his co-workers of tolerating homophobia.
White, 42, came under fire in 2009 after he used a derogatory and homophobic term in an interview, but has since insisted that the remark was completely out of character and a mistake.
“If you guys look at all of the things I’ve said over the last 10 years, some of it is stupid, some of it is whatever, but that’s the one that bothers me.”
It’s the only one that bothers me, the fact that these losers from the culinary union can go out and say I’m a homophobe and things like that. That’s the furthest thing from the truth.
