Matt Mitrione (photo via Spike / UFC)

By Joshua Molina

Two days after Matt Mitrione’s controversial comments about Fallon Fox shook the MMA community, the UFC today released a Code of Conduct for its fighters.  The Code, however, may spark as much talk as Mitrione’s tirade.

The code states: “Fighters shall conduct themselves in accordance with commonly accepted standards of decency, social convention, and morals, and fighters will not commit any act or become involved in any situation or occurrence or make any statement which will reflect negatively upon or bring disrepute, contempt, scandal, ridicule or disdain to the fighter or the UFC.”

Talk about a chilling effect. This code goes way beyond just blasting Mitrione. It essentially says UFC fighters can’t speak negatively about the company.  The crackdown also applies to email, text messages and social media.

A Code of Conduct like this will be great to protect against fighters using the UFC platform to spew hate.

As a practical matter,  it will most likely be used to control the fighters’ speech and protect the UFC from losing advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

Either way, the UFC needs to do everything it can to make itself a mainstream product.  Meatheads perpetuating hate speech won’t win any new fans.