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Mike Perry defends corner’s racist taunts: ‘I don’t believe there was any harm intended’
- Updated: August 24, 2016
Earlier this week, UFC welterweight Mike Perry appeared on The MMA Hour, coming off a big 1st round TKO of South Korea’s Hyun Gyu Lim on the UFC 202 main card. Perry was asked about the controversy that arose when it was revealed that one of his cornermen — later confirmed to be UFC middleweight Alex Nicholson — used a racist taunt during the pre-fight introductions.
“He can’t even open his motherf**king eyes,” Nicholson said, making a reference to Lim.
Nicholson later wrote on Twitter that he was just “hype for his brother” and admitted his comments towards Lim were “insensitive,” but nothing further on the subject.
When Ariel Helwani asked for Perry’s thoughts on the situation, he had this to say. (Transcription via MMAFighting)
“Well, I guess I said something about it, which isn’t my place,” he said. “I think it needs to be taken up with him, that individual, more than my words. I can’t speak for another man. I do know that man well, and I know he’s a kind-hearted individual who loves all people he comes across, unless he is crossed by those people. But I don’t believe there was any harm intended. That’s all I have to say about that. Everything else should be taken up with him.”
As the questioning continued, with Perry initially saying “Man, y’all just want me to snitch on the air,” Perry said that he didn’t know what Nicholson’s quote was.
“What did he say? People may have taken it wrong,” he said. “I think people’s opinion on this has been blown way out of proportion and they need to calm down.”
“I don’t know,” he continued, after Helwani alluded to the comments being made about Lim’s facial features. “I don’t think any of my competition can see me, and when I hit Lim I opened a lot of people’s eyes.”
After Helwani pointed out that Nicholson’s statement came before he got the KO, after a brief pause, Perry offered up this one-liner.
“Well, we can see the future.”
MMA Fighting also reported that the UFC is “looking into” the incident regarding Nicholson’s taunt, which was heard in the special corner audio on the UFC.tv broadcast of the pay-per-view. During fight week, Nicholson called Lim “Dung Him Kong Jung Foo” on his Facebook page.
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In the case of Nicholson, using racist taunts or racist language is not an isolated incident. As Bloody Elbow’s Tim Bissell researched, both Perry and Nicholson also have a bit of a history of using the …
continue reading in source www.bloodyelbow.com
