The Culinary Union appeals to FOX exec to remove Jeremy Stephens from UFC On Fox 5

Sakara=Excitement · 12-04-2012, 10:31 PM

The Culinary Union appeals to FOX exec to remove Jeremy Stephens from UFC On Fox 5 card - Bloody Elbow

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UFC on Fox 5 is arguably the best card in MMA history to appear on free TV. Definitely the strongest card the UFC has featured on the FOX network since their new partnership began. The main card features an exciting Lightweight title bout between champion Ben Henderson and contender Nate Diaz. The UFC pulled in veteran stars Shogun Rua and B.J. Penn to face off against rising talents Alexander Gustafsson and Rory MacDonald respectively. Although less divisionally relevant, even the opening bout between Matt Brown and Mike Swick should be action-packed.

Despite all the promised excitement, some of matchmaking for the December 8 card is drawing the wrong kind of attention. Specifically, the political rival of the UFC, Culinary Workers' Union Local 226 takes issue with the scheduling of Lightweights Jeremy Stephens and Abel Trujillo.

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Dear Mr. [Eric] Shanks (Co-president, FOX Sports Media Group):

We are writing to alert you about two UFC fighters who are scheduled to compete on the "UFC on FOX 5" event on December 8th at the KeyArena in Seattle. Attached you will find the Trial Information in the pending criminal case involving one UFC fighter, and two guilty pleas entered into by the other UFC fighter.

Jeremy Dean Stephens, a professional cage fighter who competes under the nickname "Lil’ Heathen," has been charged with Willful Injury Causing Serious Injury (Class C felony), Burglary in the First Degree (Class B felony), and Assault Causing Bodily Injury (Serious Misdemeanor). A trial in the case is
currently schedule for January 9, 2013.

Abel Nazario Trujillo, another cage fighter scheduled to compete on the UFC fight card on Dec. 8th in Seattle, has twice pleaded guilty to Domestic Abuse Assault Causing Bodily Injury, an aggravated misdemeanor. In both cases, the victim was identified as the mother of his child. In May 2007, Trujillo
also pleaded guilty to Obstruction of an Emergency Communication. In the plea agreement, Trujillo acknowledged that the crime required the State to prove that his alleged assault victim was making a 911 call, Trujillo knew that she was making a 911 call, and Trujillo hung up the phone. Trujillo competes
under the nickname "Killa."

These criminal cases raise serious questions about FOX’s programming judgment. At minimum, FOX and the UFC should wait for the resolution of an upcoming jury trial related to the allegations against Stephens before allowing Stephens to fight on FOX. The trial is scheduled for January 9th in Iowa.

Stephens was arrested on October 5th in Minneapolis on an Iowa warrant, just hours before his previously scheduled fight on UFC.

One of the victims of the alleged assault is identified as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army who has dedicated his career to military service and has been deployed overseas multiple times, according to a 2010 article. This should be of concern to FOX, given that fans of cage fighting events and regular
viewers of FOX likely include military veterans and active-duty soldiers who, along with their families, have paid a great sacrifice to our country.

The UFC already has a troubled relationship with some leaders in the veterans’ community and advocates for survivors of sexual assault, who believe the cage fighting organization has not done enough to prevent socially irresponsible speech among its fighters. UFC fighters have made jokes about rape, homophobic slurs and sexually explicit remarks that are demeaning towards women.

In a disturbing video published in April 2012 on YouTube, UFC fighter Quinton "Rampage" Jackson pretends to sexually assault a woman in a parking garage using chloroform and zip ties. Jackson is scheduled to fight on the "UFC on FOX 6" event on Jan. 26th in Chicago. At a public press conference in December 2011, UFC fighter Rashad Evans taunted his opponent by threatening to act like former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, who at the time faced more than 50 counts of sexual misconduct involving young boys. In other cases, UFC fighters have made light of rape on their Twitter accounts.

You can find more incidents of offensive behavior among people associated with the UFC at the following website: www.UnfitForChildren.org

As reported by FOX News, this summer more than 10,000 people nationwide signed a petition calling on the U.S. Marine Corps to renounce its support of the UFC and to refrain from using taxpayer money to sponsor the organization. A veterans committee of UNITE HERE delivered these petitions to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos; to Marine Corps recruiting stations in 10 cities; to Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee; and to
the Defense Department Advisory Committee on Women in the Services (DACOWITS).

Leaders of more than a dozen state and national organizations that advocate on behalf of veterans and/or survivors of sexual assault have called on the military to sever ties with the UFC. These groups include the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, National Institute of Military Justice, Protect Our Defenders, Women in the Military Project, Veterans For Peace, Veterans For Common Sense, Veterans United for Truth, and the Veterans Committee of UNITE HERE, among others.

The UFC was no doubt aware of the criminal charges against Jeremy Stephens at the time in which it announced on November 23rd that Stephens would fight on Dec. 8th on FOX. The alleged assault was widely publicized in the national news media. FOX Sports, ESPN, New York Post and USA Today,
among other media outlets, reported details of the arrest and an unsuccessful effort by the UFC to get Stephens out of jail on bail in time for a UFC fight in Minneapolis on October 5th.

Stephens’ management agency, Evolution Agent, released a statement denying that Stephens was involved in the alleged assault. According to the statement, Stephens attended a party in Des Moines in which a physical altercation occurred, and Stephens’ "name came up during the police investigation of the assault."

Less than 48 hours after Stephens’ arrest in Minneapolis on Oct. 5th, UFC President Dana White was quoted in USA Today and the New York Post as saying he believed Stephens’ assertion that he was innocent. "I’m taking [Stephens’] word for it," White was quoted as saying. "Man to man, that’s what he says, and I’m going to take his word for it. I believe him." White was also quoted as saying he was willing to pay an "astronomical amount of money" to bail Stephens out of jail in time for the Oct. 5 th UFC fight in Minneapolis.

White’s rush to support Stephens following his arrest was criticized by some in the media. Josh Gross of ESPN wrote, "[White] can’t know the truth about Stephens, yet he pushed and pushed to get him out on bond so he could fight in a cage the same night? Think about the optics, which probably has more to do with public relations but also delves into real-world business. Where’s the benefit to the UFC?"

There are other professional cage fighters with better fight records. As noted on UFC.com, Stephens has lost three of his last five contests in the UFC. Why isn’t a different cage fighter scheduled to fight on December 8th on FOX?

In light of the concerns cited above, we strongly encourage FOX to wait for the resolution of the jury trial in Iowa related to the alleged assault before allowing Stephens to fight on your network.

Regards,

Chris Serres
Research Analyst
Culinary Workers Union, Local 226
UNITE HERE

As stated in the letter, Jeremy Stephens has a lot on his plate right now. In fact, he's scheduled to appear at a pretrial hearing on December 13, just 5 days after his scheduled fight with Yves Edwards. As we reported earlier today, that fight will be the feature bout of the FX prelims for Saturday's event.

The Culinary Workers Union has long been known as UFC parent company Zuffa's chief political rival. The rivalry stems from the refusal of Frank and Lorenzo Ferttita's to allow unionization of Station Casinos, which they also own.

Bearded Big Country · 12-04-2012, 10:43 PM

Its hard to agree with the points when we all know your just trying to fuck the UFC. You dont give two shits about standing against domestic violence or the other court case.

trustkill · 12-04-2012, 10:52 PM

The culinary worker's union is clever, and I suspect they're keen to the story of Dan McGuane--the fighter convicted of manslaughter who was removed from a Bellator card after intense public scrutiny.

Dana definitely raised eyebrows by attempting to pull strings to get Stephens released from jail so he could fight. I doubt this story will gain any steam, but that culinary worker's union is still out there pushing their agenda.

Rise · 12-04-2012, 11:14 PM

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Originally Posted by Bearded Big Country

Its hard to agree with the points when we all know your just trying to fuck the UFC. You dont give two shits about standing against domestic violence or the other court case.

This... Unions always trying to push agendas that have nothing to do with them. Always pissed me off seeing my former union getting involved in crap that was outside the realm of what they were supposed to be doing.

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Originally Posted by trustkill

The culinary worker's union is clever, and I suspect they're keen to the story of Dan McGuane--the fighter convicted of manslaughter who was removed from a Bellator card after intense public scrutiny.

I doubt they even gave it a second thought seen as he wasn't fighting for a Zuffa branded product.

Sniggles · 12-05-2012, 02:24 AM

The Union did this to attack Dana White personally. Why and how? Because Dana White has shown to have a weak spot for Stephens when Dana tried everything he could for Stephens to appear for his last matchup. The CU is using dirty tactics and their corrupt clout to damage the Fertittas brands.

sonofsteven · 12-05-2012, 04:51 AM

I think you guys are missing the most important point -they may be d-bags who are anti-anything-UFC/Dana White -but they are RIGHT. Would you pass them off so easily if he had plead guilty to rape? These guys are highly trained and way more dangerous than your average Joe and should be held to very strict standards by the UFC when it comes to violent behavior outside the cage. So many people threw a fit (myself inclkuded and rightly so) about the Bellator guy but don't bat an eye when this fighter physically abused his baby momma? Cmon man.....

rivethead · 12-05-2012, 06:12 AM

^^Agreed, although I have no idea if they're douchebags or not^^

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Originally Posted by Sniggles

The Union did this to attack Dana White personally. Why and how? Because Dana White has shown to have a weak spot for Stephens when Dana tried everything he could for Stephens to appear for his last matchup. The CU is using dirty tactics and their corrupt clout to damage the Fertittas brands.

And how is that any different from the tactics dana and zuffa routinely employ? When zuffa does things like counterprogramming other competitive orgs, it's considered a great business move. When dana gets a personal hard-on for Fedor and does everything he can to fuck his career, it's hilarious...but when the CU does this it's suddenly corrupt and dirty?

How?

If Stephens is found to be guilty, it wouldn't be the best for him to have fought on this card. If he's found to be innocent, he can fight on future cards without any concern. If Stephens needs money now for legal defense, and dana is 100% supportive, zuffa can financially assist him until the critical parts of his case are resolved.

With Trujillo, his case happened years ago, and it's public record; but there doesn't seem to be anything about resolution and/or anger management classes or other educational outreach. Minimally, if he's done things to turn himself around, that should be public knowledge as well. I'm all in favor of giving people second chances, but none of what the CU has done here is in any way corrupt in my eyes.

Fundamentally, I want the MMA to get better. I look at things like this as constructive criticism. I want zuffa to address the concerns constructively--I do not feel Stephens should be fighting until his case is resolved, nor any other fighter who is under investigation for violent crimes--and grow as a result.

I think the kneejerk reaction is to simply hate on the CU because they have an agenda. But their agenda doesn't mean that anything they've stated here is anything less than accurate.

rh

rspier · 12-05-2012, 06:17 AM

It doesn't matter their motive, the fact stands and personally believe Stephens shouldn't fight until after the trial... If he's guilty he shouldn't fight agian.

JPeezy · 12-05-2012, 09:53 AM

A union stooping to under-handed tactics like this to get their way in a labor dispute? Well if this isn't the least surprising thing I've ever read.....

Fe1 · 12-05-2012, 10:03 AM

Fucking vendettas. It seems so transparent that they're just trying to fuck with the UFC. If I were a Fox executive and I was approached by then I would seriously just say "how is it any of your business?" And laugh in their faces.

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