Belal Muhammad Palestine flag gets removed: 3 times UFC faced heat for censorship

Belal Muhammad is set to defend his UFC welterweight championship at the upcoming UFC 315 event in Montréal, Canada. While his fight against Jack Della Maddalena is already intriguing inside the octagon, the company is already getting headlines for something before Muhammad has even thrown a punch: his country of origin is not listed on the official UFC website.

If you’ve ever used the UFC site before to look at a fight card, you’ll know that the country that a competitor is fighting out of is usually listed below their name. Maddalena has Australia listed below his name, but Palestine, the country that reigning welterweight champion is representing, is noticeably missing.

Some fighters do sometimes compete outside of a recognized state, this is clearly a deliberate decision taken by the UFC to not display the Palestinian flag or even name of the country. There are of course globally reaching reasons as to why the company would choose to not list Muhammad’s country.

No matter how you personally feel about the ongoing conflict in Gaza or political relations in the Middle East, it is a form of censorship from the UFC. With that in mind, I wanted to look at three of the big moments where the company got ‘heat’ from fans and analysts for perceived censorship both inside and outside the octagon.

1. Media restrictions in 2020

2020 will be remembered as the year that the world had to lockdown in the wake of COVID-19. UFC fans were the first to see their sport back on their screens, with the MMA company being the first to hold a live sports event in the US since lockdowns began in May.

It was heralded by many as a chance to get some ‘normalcy’ during an unprecedented global event, but UFC 249 would actually end up being remembered by members of the press for the perceived “stifling” of information. Karim Zidan noted in The Guardian just how the UFC attempted to stop stories getting out regarding their stance on COVID-19 protocols:

While the UFC’s protocols were loosely applied on fight night, the organization covered its bases and eliminated its own legal risk by making fighters and staff sign waivers that ban them from criticizing the coronavirus protocols in place for the event. If fighters violate this provision “whether relating to Covid-19 or otherwise,” the UFC reserves the right to “revoke all or any part of any prize monies or awards won by the Participant.

Karim Zidan via The Guardian

The difficulty for the fighters, coaches and other staff members is that this was the only opportunity they had to work at such a difficult time. Signing this waiver, which ESPN reported was also given to media members as well as staff at the event, would mean that while you did get paid, you couldn’t whistleblow on something potentially dangerous when the world was still reeling with a deadly virus running rampant.

Public perception to this was not great (to say the least). However, much like some other issues that the company has faced in the past, they were pretty much able to sweep it under the rug with bigger and bigger fights announced in the months following.

2. Francis Ngannou gets his name removed

This was a slightly bizarre one. Not only did it annoy fans of the UFC, but it also annoyed one of the biggest fighters on the planet: Israel Adesanya. ‘The Last Stylebender’ spoke about a UFC promotional video that cut out Francis Ngannou on YouTube, and the former middleweight champion was incensed that the company tried to “erase” what he had done.

Due to Ngannou leaving the company and heading to pastures new with the PFL and Heavyweight Boxing, the promotion opted to heavily edit the UFC 305 Countdown video and remove mentions of Ngannou by Adesanya, which greatly upset him. Dana White also apologized for it later on.

It’s a very different form of censorship. However, by not mentioning one of the African-born Three Kings (Adesanya, Ngannou and Kamaru Usman), they tried to edit out a massive part of the company’s history. It was the wrong move, with fans, analysts and fighters calling them out on it.

3. Reebok Sponsorship Deal (2015)

This is again a slightly different form of censorship, but it actively stopped fighters from getting payments from endorsement deals. The UFC signed an exclusive apparel deal with Reebok in 2015. This deal prohibited fighters from displaying their own sponsors during UFC events. This move was controversial, as it massively reduced the potential income for a fighter.

Prior to the change, fighters would have numerous sponsors on their shorts and banners held up to the cage before the fight. However, this rule change took all of that away. Another really big problem for the fighters was that the Reebok deal didn’t come anywhere near close to offsetting the loss of income from previous sponsorships.

The problem, once again, is that the UFC is the biggest game in town. If you aren’t willing to abide by their rules back in 2015, then there wasn’t exactly a huge amount of competition elsewhere. While these are all very different forms of censorship, they show that the UFC are not above trying to stop certain pieces of information from beginning out, being remembered or even getting fighters on the roster paid more by outside sponsors.

Related: Sean O’Malley’s dreams of beating Team Khabib would’ve seen same fate as ‘jealous hero’ Conor McGregor