PHILADELPHIA – UFC President Dana White’s reaction to a fighter’s choice of trunks in a recent bout has raised a few eyebrows and got the gay blogosphere bubbling.
In his Ultimate Fighting Championship fight against Brian Ebersole, Dennis “Superman” Hallman entered the octagon in a blue Speedo sporting the words “Training Mask” across his crotch. White, who admitted being grossed out by the shorts, said they were “borderline disgusting” and awarded Ebersole a $70,000 bonus for beating Hallman at UFC 133.
White said that the bonus was for, “getting those horrifying shorts off TV as soon as possible.” He then added, “He deserves every dime of the $70,000 he made tonight.”
White told USA Today that he was, “seriously ticked off at the guys who work for us that let him walk out with those things on. I’ve never been so embarrassed to be in the UFC as I was then.”
When asked if there was some kind of uniform code for fighters White said, “We do now. We do now. You know what I thought we had? I thought we had some common sense, you know what I mean? At least a little bit of common sense. That was a really bad moment. I was horrified by that.”
Ebersole put away Hallman with a first-round technical knockout, but not until he survived early trouble.
Explaining his choice of attire to famed MMA journalist Ariel Helwani Hallman said, “I won’t say what the bet was about, but I lost a bet … and losing the bet meant that I got to wear some Speedos … I thought it was funny. I thought it was embarrassing for me … But I didn’t think anybody would be cross about it … Maybe I can put those Speedos on Ebay as the last Speedos ever worn in the UFC and make some money.”
