Racist image lands contract ban for Ultimate Fighter contestant
An ugly social media image has resulted in an Ultimate Fighter: Nations contestant being told he has no chance at a TUF contract.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under Subscription
A NZ born contestant on the Australian- Canadian co-production The Ultimate Fighter (TUF): Nations has been told by the UFC organisation that he will not received a contract at the end of the series after it emerged that he posted a racist image on Instagram 18 months ago.
Middleweight Tyler Manawaroa, 19, who is representing Team Australia, posted a image of a black-skinned child with an offensive message. The image has since been removed.
In a statement UFC said, “The UFC organization had hired an investigation company in Australia to conduct thorough background investigations on potential contestants for The Ultimate Fighter Nations television series. Unfortunately, the background checks did not uncover all of the social media history by contestant Tyler Manawaroa.
“The UFC is committed to having an environment that is free from discrimination. Consequently, UFC has notified Manawaroa that regardless of how far he advances in the completed television series, the organization will not be offering him a contract to compete in the UFC.”
On Facebook Manawaroa apologised, saying, “I posted a pic on Instagram that has offended people…I’m very sorry !! As you can imagine that was never the intention. As a dark skinned person myself who has dealt with racism all my life, I was making fun of the stereotype that all dark people go to jail…which is obviously not true….hence the irony…but I will remove it and I apologize for offending you.”
2 Responses
Social media coming to bite people in the butt – sounds fair to me
I can’t stand discrimination but he was 18, it was one pic, he has given sufficient explanation regarding his intent, and his apology seems sincere. I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.