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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt found himself in hot water last week thanks to a social media spat with rising 135-pound contender Aljamain Sterling.
Sterling blasted “No Love” for repeatedly calling him “boy,” a term Garbrandt claims he uses for everyone and was unaware that it carried racial connotations, despite these headlines Conor McGregor made just a few days prior.
The champ explains himself to The MMA Hour:
“I should have called him a little bitch, not ‘boy’, I didn’t know that it was politically incorrect. I got a shirt that says ‘Hanging with the boys’, I call everybody ‘boy’. You know, ‘what’s up, boy’, I didn’t know that it was politically incorrect. I am not in the least bit racist. I have a sister that’s married to a black guy. I have a niece that is a mixed (race) child. For him to go out there and try to ride off that fame, I told that fool that the next time I see him I’m going to fuck him up. He tried to tell me that I was going to get jumped and all of this, he’s just a bitch and that’s what he is. I should have called him a bitch.”
Perhaps this is a case of subliminal insensitivity?
Garbrandt (11-0) recently recovered from a debilitating back injury and will make his first title defense against former champion TJ Dillashaw at the upcoming UFC 217 pay-per-view (PPV) event, scheduled for Nov. 4, 2017 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.
For much more on that upcoming fight click here.