The FCC's absurd UFC complaints: 'Barbaric' language, bloody 'girls,' Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey and media

Most people, when confronted with a program they don’t like on television, will simply switch the channel and search for something they find more suitable. However, some folks take things a little more personally.

Some take the time to write to the Federal Communications Commission, the government agency tasked with regulating what hits the airwaves, so their feelings can be heard.

A Freedom of Information Act request allowed MMAjunkie to obtain complaints the FCC had received concerning the UFC over the past three years (complaints are purged after three years).

When the envelope arrived, it was thinner than expected, and there was some fear that the request had been denied. After all, if the FCC can receive 22 letters about language on golf broadcasts (15 specifically referenced Tiger Woods’ language) over three years, surely the UFC would have to generate its own fair share of indignity from the viewing public.

Surprisingly, that wasn’t the case.

The request was not denied. The thin, hand-addressed envelope revealed only 12 complaints.

Dana White and Joe Rogan

The first was dated May 20, 2013. This complaint was by far the harshest (and longest) and directed at the FCC:

What’s the big idea having an organization that does not do its job? Most TV shows ad commercials contain highly-offensive (no, this term is NOT subjective) material. Last Saturday, a UFC fighter was on a fox baseball telecast promoting the UFC and using the term “sucks.” We don’t need barbaric material promoted, and we don’t need that type of language used. Understand? Do your job.

Said fighter was campaigning for NY and CT to “legalize” the UFC——as though, it would be constitutional even if “legalized”, just like abortion and perverse marriage are in no way constitutional, whether we push them into legal acceptance or not. We don’t need propaganda pushed over the airways. While you’re at it, you can censor Family Guy and other such trash, including commercials for 99% of what Hollywood promotes.

A patron of Buffalo Wild Wings in Boise, Idaho, filed the following after returning from dinner. No mention was made of what the complainant ordered or the person managed to force down a meal while the fight played out on multiple screens:

Claudia Gadelha

i was at buffalo wild wings having dinner, they turned on 6 big screens with ufc fighting, there were 2 girls fighting and one was bleeding badly. I asked the management to turn it off, there were several children present and this was not appropriate, they refused and said it brings them busness, there should be warnings that violent television will be shown

If the onetime face of the PGA, Woods, gets complaints for his language, it should come as no surprise that the face of the UFC’s women’s divisions, bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, prompted a complaint.

On a Dec. 26, 2014, broadcast of ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” Rousey appeared live and discussed how her relationship with rival Miesha Tate was being portrayed. Rousey didn’t bite her tongue, and that brought the ire of a viewer from San Leandro, Calif.:

Ronda Rousey, a UFC fighter, was being interviewed on what she had to know was live TV. She said “sh**ty”, then feigned surprise though she seemed pretty happy with herself. It wasn’t exactly the kind of thing I thought I was going to expose my nieces to by watching a sports show.

While there was no mention of repercussions from the FCC for Rousey’s slip-up, the “SportsCenter” host did ask her to enter something called “the cuddle tree,” so that should suffice for punishment, no?

Other complaints that mention the UFC concern the volume of commercials during broadcasts, billing, “spamming” UFC commercials while viewing the anime show “Sailor Moon,” the quality of the UFC’s high definition pay-per-view events (the writer found them lacking) and the lack of closed captioning on UFC Fight Pass, the promotion’s digital network.

One of the letters, dated June 4, 2014, is from a man from Glendora, Calif. After returning from a business trip, he opened his Verizon bill and was shocked to see charges for a UFC PPV event on his bill. He was less than kind to his wife while filing his complaint:

I went to pay my May bill and was charged for a UFC fight that I did not order. I was in Iowa on a business trip. My wife and eight year old daughter were home. There is no way that either of them ordered this pay per view event with our remote. My wife can barely find the channels that she wants let alone order garbage like a UFC event. I contacted Verizon and they stated that not only was the fight ordered but it was watched for 170 minutes. I was appalled that they had the nerve to tell me that the program was watched. Please help me recover this amount from these thieves. I expect a response to my complaint.

The FCC stated in its letter to MMAjunkie that complaints do “not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing by any individuals or business entities named in the complaint.”

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