LAS VEGAS – A torrent of mixed martial arts fans rushed to Matt Mitrione's defense after the embattled UFC heavyweight ripped into transgender MMA fighter Fallon Fox on Monday, saying she had an unfair advantage competing against women.





Mitrione's unprovoked, vitriolic attack on Fox's "The MMA Hour" went largely unchallenged in the media despite the nature of his comments being so overtly obtuse.

"He's chromosomally a man," Mitrione said. "He had a gender change, not a sex change. He's still a man. He was a man for 31 years. Thirty-one years. That's a couple years younger than I am. He's a man. Six years of taking performance de-hancing drugs, you think is going to change all that? That's ridiculous. That is a lying, sick, sociopathic, disgusting freak."

His comments came Monday, a day before the UFC publicly released its official Fighter Code of Conduct exclusively to Yahoo! Sports, and proved beyond doubt why such a document is so desperately needed.

Mitrione is entitled to his opinion, and there are many people who have rallied in support of his comments. Significantly, there are many doctors who share his concern that Fox has an unfair advantage competing against women who were born women.

[Dana White: 'No point' in Matt Matrione's transphobic rant]

But even if his comments were made in jest, they were outrageous and offensive and deserving of some sort of punishment.

On Monday, the UFC quickly denounced Mitrione's words and announced his indefinite suspension. It doesn't mean he'll be cut, or suspended long-term, or even fined, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Yahoo! Sports. But the UFC will review the incident and, at the very least, try to educate Mitrione about why his comments were harmful.

View photos

The UFC was aided in the development of its code of conduct, which was based upon similar codes used in the NFL, Major League Baseball and NHL, by the powerful Washington D.C. law firm Covington & Burling.

Its aim, correctly, is not to punish, but to educate and prevent embarrassments.

"We're not a bunch of police officers and we're not sitting around all day trying to figure out ways to catch guys," UFC COO Ike Lawrence Epstein said. "We're trying to run a business and these things can get in the way of that. And look, there are two sides to that.

"Matt Mitrione, he's got a career, sponsors, things to take care of. We want to do what is right for the company, but if there is an opportunity to educate, to help him move on from this in a way that makes sense, we want to do that. We're not police officers here. We're trying, hopefully, to push guys in the right direction and make sure they're being respectful and not being disrespectful to any race, gender, etc."

[Also: Fallon Fox responds to Matt Mitrione's comments]

The UFC has been plagued by a series of thoughtless comments in social media over the last few years that were meant as jokes but which came off as anything but. Rape is a horrible, violent crime and is nothing to make light of, but there have been instances recently where a fighter joked about it.

By publicly releasing the standard of conduct it expects from its fighters, the UFC has taken a strong step toward reducing the flippant comments that create a media sensation and which slow the business of arranging and promoting fights.

Story continues