“They didn’t let us get the flag, so shout out Jamaica,” he explained.
Brown pointed out something that had been missing from all the UFC 274 prelim fights: a distinct lack of flags being hoisted up by fighters before and after their bouts. No more flags during walkouts. No more flags in the cage. A closer look through the official UFC photos from the eventshowed the promotion is no longer doing fighter portraits with flags either.
Asked during the UFC 274 post-fight press conference whether the UFC had banned fighters from carrying flags, UFC president Dana White kept his response short and simple.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You guys know why,” he said when pressed on the issue. “Let’s not even play that f—king game.”
White is generally not shy when it comes to ‘telling it like it is.’ But in this case he clammed up pretty hard. Did some country the UFC is working with have an issue with certain flags being aired on broadcasts? Did the UFC’s parent company Endeavor tell them it was a problem? Or was it ESPN or Disney?
If the UFC is banning flags to avoid offending authoritarian regimes, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. Is this to avoid controversy if Russian fighters carry out their flag as the country is involved in an invasion of Ukraine? Or perhaps it’s Russians that don’t want to look at the Ukrainian flag.
View: https://youtu.be/eFbbPV6dLeo
Brown pointed out something that had been missing from all the UFC 274 prelim fights: a distinct lack of flags being hoisted up by fighters before and after their bouts. No more flags during walkouts. No more flags in the cage. A closer look through the official UFC photos from the eventshowed the promotion is no longer doing fighter portraits with flags either.
Asked during the UFC 274 post-fight press conference whether the UFC had banned fighters from carrying flags, UFC president Dana White kept his response short and simple.
“Yeah,” he said.
“You guys know why,” he said when pressed on the issue. “Let’s not even play that f—king game.”
White is generally not shy when it comes to ‘telling it like it is.’ But in this case he clammed up pretty hard. Did some country the UFC is working with have an issue with certain flags being aired on broadcasts? Did the UFC’s parent company Endeavor tell them it was a problem? Or was it ESPN or Disney?
If the UFC is banning flags to avoid offending authoritarian regimes, it’s a pretty sad state of affairs. Is this to avoid controversy if Russian fighters carry out their flag as the country is involved in an invasion of Ukraine? Or perhaps it’s Russians that don’t want to look at the Ukrainian flag.
Dana White confirms UFC fighter flag ban: ‘You guys know why’
UFC fighters are no longer allowed to walkout or celebrate with the flag of their countries.
www.mmamania.com
View: https://youtu.be/eFbbPV6dLeo