Miguel Torres cut by UFC for making rape joke on Twitter

Miguel Torres recently made an offensive joke on Twitter involving rape. The backlash was immediate, as both fans and members of the MMA media took him to task for making such an insensitive quip on such a touchy subject.

He responded with confusion and anger. His central defense was everything should be okay to joke about or nothing should.

Well, UFC President Dana White doesn't agree. In fact, he informed Sports Illustrated today that Torres has been cut from the UFC for his remarks:

"This morning I'm on [Michael] Landsburg's show, up here in Canada, and he hits me with the quote of what he tweeted. Now there's no explanation for that. There's absolutely nothing I could say to make any sense of that. And the fact that he even thinks that's funny or that's a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me. Again, you're dealing with a guy that's a smart guy, that owns his own business, that's been one of the top fighters in the world forever. And I cut him today. He's no longer with the UFC. It's being announced right now to you. You're the only one that knows. Miguel Torres has been cut from the UFC and his career with us now is over."

As many of you have already been quick to point out, Torres isn't the first one to make an insensitive joke about the very same subject. Former Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin also found himself in hot water for saying "rape is the new missionary" on his Twitter account.

Just yesterday, another former champion, Rashad Evans, made an unfortunate taunt to his UFC on Fox 2 opponent, Phil Davis, saying he's going to put his hands on Davis "worse than that other dude at Penn State."

Those two, however, still have jobs.

It was perhaps a combination of the three that ultimately felled Torres. Here's more from White:

"And then he said he hadn't heard what happened to Forrest [Griffin, who drew fire for tweeting 'Rape is the new missionary' last month]. Really? Where do you live? What business are you in? How do you not hear about these things? You should have paid more attention. It's to the point now where, there's going be times when things happen and mistakes are made. I cannot defend Miguel Torres. I cannot defend what he said. What he said makes no sense other than when he says, 'It was a joke.' Well, I don't think that's a funny joke. I think it's disturbing."

The fact that Evans and Griffin are still gainfully employed may seem to send the wrong message. After all, if two former division champions and Ultimate Fighter winners can get away with it, why can't Torres?

The answer is not so simple. It should be noted that Evans apologized and White called it a "stupid" thing to say. No real punishment beyond that was handed out.

Griffin also wasn't subjected to punishment. In fact, White told Mauro Ranallo that Griffin's tweet was misunderstand and it wasn't actually a joke but rather a social commentary. Forrest did apologize for his remarks, along with donating money to a rape crisis center in the wake of his comments.

Torres was unapologetic for his remarks, at least on his Twitter account. The result is his dismissal from the UFC.

Is it fair for White to keep Evans and Griffin around while cutting Torres?