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Originally Posted by cnlclink  Interesting...I have to wonder why the charges were dropped so much. Anyway he has fought some bigger names. This probably isn't a terrible match actually. NBC may pull him but the guy has served his time it appears.
"Arrest
On June 14, 2008, Cole was arrested by the Medford, Oregon police department and charged with first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual penetration. The charges were later reduced to assault in the fourth degree and sexual harassment, to which Cole plead guilty. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail." Devin Cole - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I suck at this formatting stuff and quoting from websites but there's my "source". |
The thing is, Devin Cole was supposed to fight Travis Browne on the UFC on FOX 4 card but ZUFFA scrapped the match after fear of bad press over having a fighter with that specific record on a network TV MMA broadcast.
Now, either NBC hasn't done their due dilligence or they've decided it is a non-issue. If it's the latter, I think they'll experience something similar to the backlash Showtime faced after having Brandon Saling on their Rousey/Tate prelim card, with him having ties to white power orgs and being a registered sex offender, however on a much higher level since Cole is in the main event on an NBC card.
I think this will be too touchy and too risky for them from a PR standpoint and given how interactive twitter and social media is, news of this will spread fast.