Manager Mike Kogan issues statement after racial epithet comment on Jose Aldo

Shortly after using a thinly veiled racial epithet while commenting on a story about Jose Aldo, MMA manager Mike Kogan issued a statement to MMAjunkie.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kogan posted a screen capture of a story about the UFC featherweight champ’s lingering dissatisfaction with his pay. In the comment section, he wrote, “This n***a needs to make up his mind. Or more like stick to his guns and stop flip-flopping.”

MMA website BloodyElbow.com subsequently posted a story about Kogan’s words, calling attention to his previous uses of offensive language, including a 2013 MMAjunkie story in which he defended client Nate Diaz’s use of the word “F-g” on social media.

The story stated that Kogan was “laughing off a fighter … for wanting better pay” and called him to task for using the epithet.

Responding via text message, Kogan initially replied to the story off-the-record and denied any racist intent behind his post, but then wrote a response.

“I was saying he needs to make up his mind,” Kogan told MMAjunkie in the text statement. “Either you b—h and stick to it or don’t say anything at all. He said he wasn’t happy about the pay before, then three days later took it back (and) said, ‘Well, I didn’t mean it.’ Now he’s talking about it again.

“So my point was not to make fun of (him), but just say, either you are unhappy and you stick to your guns or you are happy (and) then don’t talk about it. The only way pay will ever change is if the top guys (and) the champions start to speak out, but they have to stick to their guns, not flip-flop.”

The manager added: “Bloodyelbow are all dumbasses.”

As most in the MMA world know by now, Kogan and UFC lightweight Diaz are in the midst of a well-publicized holdout for a better contract. The UFC appears not to be budging on the issue, with UFC President Dana White saying the fighter signed a deal and won’t strongarm the promotion into a new contract by sitting out.

Kogan and his client’s brash language have frequently spurred controversy from MMA observers. The manager’s most recent message prompted a fiery response on Twitter.

But the manager’s public profile also prompted one client to seek other representation, according to one current UFC fighter, who was asked today for a response to Kogan’s tweet.

UFC middleweight Derek Brunson told MMAjunkie he doesn’t believe Kogan harbors any racial prejudices, but later added that he sought out another manager because he received calls from sponsors complaining about Kogan’s behavior.

Brunson initially laughed when read the message and said, “Mike’s crazy, man. He’s just a different guy. I think it’s funny coming from Mike, because that’s just him. I would definitely say he’s more of a rebel, like the Diaz brothers. He manages Nate, Roy Nelson, (Muhammed) ‘King Mo’ (Lawal), so all his guys are really controversial, going to speak their mind, and like to get a media reaction. That’s just my take on it.”

Brunson laughed again when asked whether Kogan used the language in his presence during their business relationship and said, “Sometimes.”

“It didn’t affect me. I don’t have a problem with it. That’s just his personality. He’s not racist by any means. He actually uses n–ga as a slang, but I would prefer my manager not to say that. That’s kind of why I went in a different direction. I had sponsors contacting me saying, ‘Look what your manager is saying.’ So that was one of my reasons. But as a person, I like Mike.”

Kogan’s management firm, Real Talk Entertainment, currently reps 21 fighters, including WSOF featherweight Georgi Karakhanyan, who recently signed an endorsement deal with Reebok.

One hour after issuing his statement, Kogan forwarded a screenshot to MMAjunkie of a message from Aldo’s official Twitter account. In the message, Aldo uses the same racial epithet as the manager.