LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Nearly three weeks to the day, former WEC bantamweight kingpin and current UFC bantamweight contender Miguel Torres saw his career come tumbling down around him due to an inappropriate joke he mistakenly tweeted on his Twitter account.
On December 8th, UFC president Dana White stated in an interview with SI.com, that Torres had been cut from the UFC due to the following quote from the TV show ‘Workaholics’ made on Torres’ Twitter page: "If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn’t mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises."
Unfortunately, this came on the heels of two similarly controversial comments made by two former UFC light-heavyweight champions. On November 8th, like Torres, Forrest Griffin made a comment about rape on Twitter that was widely scrutinized. It was later explained that Griffin was simply commenting on the fact that everywhere you look in the news these days, there is a sexual assault case being discussed.
The biggest current national case in particular, involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, was later referenced on December 7th in a taunt from Rashad Evans toward Phil Davis during a FOX news conference to promote their upcoming bout on FOX in January. Davis is a former NCAA Division I wrestling national champion and graduate from Penn State.
Due to the mainstream media’s heated coverage of the comments made by Griffin and Evans, the timing of Torres’ "rape van" joke couldn’t have come at a worse time. In fact, it came just one day after Evans’ comment, which led to the UFC releasing him from the promotion.
After deleting the tweet and issuing a public apology on his personal website, Miguel Torres was very proactive in redeeming himself with his UFC bosses. Earlier today, Ariel Helwani reported on his Twitter page that White announced that Torres is now back with the company during a UFC 141 press conference. Apparently, Torres had donated money to local rape centers and visited them. White also said that Torres was very remorseful, emotional, and handled his business like a man with no one telling him to do it.
Torres then made the official announcement of his return to the UFC by using none other than his infamous Twitter account. Torres’ first tweet since the incident went down, confirmed he’s back and thanked his family, friends, supporters, fans, management, Dana White, and Lorenzo Fertitta.