UFC Middleweight Apologizes For Racist Remarks At UFC 202

Two days after last weekend’s (Sat., August 20, 2016) UFC 202 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, a UFC middleweight has issued an apology for racially insensitive marks he was seen and heard issuing during the UFC Fight Pass-aired portion of the UFC preliminary card.

Alex Nicholson, who recently picked up his first UFC win in July with a shocking come-from-behind knockout of favored Devin Clark at the scintillating UFC Fight Night 91 from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was caught on video muttering the unfortunate phrase, “He can’t even open his motherf**king eyes,” when his teammate Mike Perry was introduced for his own UFC debut against veteran Hyun Gyu Lim.

The comments were immediately flagged for their brash oversight of common respect, especially in a bout when Perry had already drawn heat for instigating at the official weigh-ins. He went on to win the bout with a brutal knockout, so it’s unfortunate that Nicholson had to mar his teammate’s big debut win with some in-the-moment comments like this.

For his part, he attempted to mend the fences this evening with an apology on Twitter (via Bloody Elbow):

I respect every man who steps in the cage and my comments were insensitive towards lim I was hype for my brother but It's all love no hate.

— . (@spartanlife32) August 23, 2016

It takes a big man to admit when he’s wrong and apologize, although it remains to be seen if the UFC will take any action against Nicholson for the bad publicity they certainly don’t need in this age of seemingly nonstop USADA drug test failures.

He’s only a two-fight veteran in the UFC, having lost his debut to a brutal jaw/neck crank submission from rising prospect Misha Cirkunov after he proposed to his girlfriend at the weigh-ins.

Following his win at middleweight, it’d be unfortunate to see a potentially solid career be hindered by such a foolish statement.

We’ll see if this apology is enough in the eyes of the new UFC ownership.