Luke Thomas used his Morning Kombat platform to deliver a critique of the UFC’s response to the racial controversy involving Joaquin Buckley, Dustin Poirier, and several other athletes, calling the sport “lost” and laying the blame squarely at the feet of TKO leadership.
Thomas explained the background for viewers: Buckley had gone after Poirier for not doing enough to distance himself from a racially charged meme that stemmed from an incident involving an airline employee.
The situation then escalated into a broader conflict involving Sean Strickland, Alexander Volkov, Marvin Vettori, and Max Holloway, with Thomas describing it as “something of a race war that is just openly happening.”
Thomas noted that the UFC did nothing. “They don’t care. They don’t care,” he said flatly. “TKO doesn’t care about MMA. They are here to make money off of this and they don’t care if they degrade the product. They don’t care if they turn it into race wars. They don’t care if their Black athletes suffer racial abuse online.”
Thomas pointed to a contrast with how the UFC had handled similar situations in the past, referencing the cases of Matt Mitrione and Miguel Torres, both of whom faced real consequences for offensive public comments during the sport’s push toward mainstream acceptance and broadcast television.
“There was always this idea that you’re upholding the professionalism of your sport,” he said, adding that protecting the brand was once a genuine organizational priority tied to billion-dollar broadcast deals.
He said Vettori’s conduct was particularly revealing. After Vettori posted a lengthy defense of using a racial slur as “just a word,” he then referred to Black people as “chimps” following pushback.
“It’s a window into your soul,” Thomas said. “It tells us who you are. And of course subsequent comments have all revealed that.”
Thomas also turned the criticism inward on himself, admitting that he had spent years arguing on behalf of the sport’s character.
“I bought into the lie that it was better than this,” he said. “I cannot tell you how many meetings I had at radio stations and editorial boards, trying to tell them, no, no, it’s not what you think.” He described going from that era to the present as “head-spinning.”
Co-host Chuck Mindenhall added that the absence of accountability feels tied to the cultural and political moment, noting that Dana White once faced a media-driven reckoning after comments about Michelle Obama, then appeared on the main stage at Madison Square Garden with no apparent consequence.
Thomas concluded with a direct message to fans: “To anyone of conscience and or intelligence, you need to figure out what your relationship is to this. It’s never going back to the way that it was. And it’s especially never going back because TKO does not care.”
