Late last night, the UFC announced that Ultimate Fighter Nations contestant Tyler Manawaroa will not receive a UFC contract following the culmination of the show, no matter how far he advances.
The news comes after an offensive instagram picture that Manawaroa posted eighteen months ago was put in the public limelight when fellow TUF Nations cast member Kajan Johnson tweeted it out on February 9th. The picture itself featured a racially insensitive internet meme along with a deliberate use of racial slurs.
Manawaroa advanced to the semi-finals of the middleweight tournament on last week’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter by beating Nordine Taleb with a unanimous decision. Manawaroa, along with nineteen year-old Jake Matthews and four-time Olympian Daniel Kelly, is one of the premier fighters on Team Australia.
Being only nineteen years-old, Tyler Manawaroa has amassed an impressive 10-0 record, so it will be interesting to see if another promotion takes a flier on him, given the reputation he currently.
On Twitter, Tyler Manawaroa responded to Team Canada coach Patrick Cote, Kajan Johnson, and UFC veteran David Loiseau by tweeting “racism isn’t funny I know that. It was a joke.”
The fact that the picture was posted eighteen months ago and was not picked up on by the UFC when they presumably did background checks prior to filming the Ultimate Fighter Nations opened up questions on how the UFC went about checking the backgrounds of contestants on the show.
The UFC answered those questions in the press release which read, “The UFC organization had hired an investigation company in Australia to conduct thorough background investigations on potential contestants for ‘The Ultimate Fighter Nations’ television series. Unfortunately, the background checks did not uncover all of the social media history by contestant Tyler Manawaroa.”
Manawaroa’s release was also explained in the release, “The UFC is committed to having an environment that is free from discrimination.”