
UFC featherweight Bryce Mitchell landed himself in perhaps the dumbest spot any UFC fighter has ever found himself in earlier this month, and is now eating a very large portion of crow.
On the inaugural episode of his podcast, Mitchell claimed that “before Hitler got on meth, he was a guy to go fishing with,” calling it his own opinion and not “my public education indoctrination.” Digging himself deeper, he claimed that “He fought for his country. He wanted to purify it by kicking the greedy Jews out that were destroying his country and turning them all into gays.”
Aside from playing into Jewish stereotypes, apparently Bryce Mitchell was of the belief that Jews were turning people gay. And while the Nazis did persecute homosexuals, Judaism isn’t exactly welcoming to them either.
In any case, aside from being very confused (that knock in the head from Josh Emmett probably didn’t help), Mitchell is now appearing very contrite. In a statement issued via social media, the Arkansas fighter and occasional rapper wrote “I’m sorry if I sounded insensitive. I definitely was not trying to offend anybody, but I know I did. I know that a lot of people died in the Holocaust, and that’s a fact. Hitler did a lot of evil things, I think we can all agree on that. I’m definitely not a Nazi, and definitely do not condone any of the evil things Hitler did.”
In far less grammatically correct English (corrected below), he accompanied the post by saying “In future I will be much more considerate when talking about the suffering of all peoples.”
Maybe this will get him back in Dana White’s good graces. White lambasted his fighter, calling his comments “beyond disgusting,” though he stopped short of cutting him from the UFC roster. Public backlash against Mitchell was also swift.