Trash Talk, how far is too far? - I Did Some Digging

We look back as some truly incendiary statements and the corporation's reactions.

Hey all, and welcome to another edition of I Did Some Digging, in which we wonder if a middle aged man armed only with a search engine and some Twitter DM’s, can get to the bottom of some MMA Old Wives Tales. This week we look at the upcoming UFC 298 scuffle between Ian Garry and Geoff Neal to consider the most pressing question about trash talk: how far is too far?

What’s the context?

Ian Garry and Geoff Neal are set to square off in a welterweight contender’s match on the main card of UFC 298. They were previously booked at UFC 292 until Neal withdrew for health reasons. In the lead up to the fight Garry utilized some creative trash talk by having a custom t-shirt featuring Geoff Neal’s mugshot and sold them on his website. This angered and upset both Neal and his family members, who weighed in unfavorably on Garry’s action.

Life would imitate art a couple months later when it came to light that Garry’s wife Layla had written a book instructing young women on how to be a WAG. Turnabout became fair play and Garry saw his family dynamics dragged into the MMA news cycle and the brash Irishman was roasted across the internet.

In my perfect world, Garry and Neal will face off at weigh ins with Garry wearing the mugshot shirt and Neal holding a copy of Layla’s book. All this got me thinking though, is there a line? Are family, race, or religion off limits? I decided to look back at some famous, funny, and inflammatory moments of trash talk to see if there are any agreed upon limits or boundaries.

Historical Usage

The UFC has relied on dynamic personalities just as much as elite athletes to fuel PPV sales. For every Georges St. Pierre on one side of the coin there’s a Chael Sonnen on the other. Not coincidentally both of those men have been involved in some rather memorable trash talk, one giving and the other receiving. So without further ado, here’s a list of significant trash talk moments and their consequences.

Tito Ortiz, king of the novelty shirts

Tito Ortiz was at one point the most important PPV draw in the UFC. He was brash, antagonistic, and dominant in his winning ways. Ortiz spent some of the most memorable years of his career feuding with Ken Shamrock and his stablemates in the Lion’s Den. Ortiz memorialized that stretch of his career by printing custom t-shirts that he would don inside the cage immediately after victory. The shirt that has stuck in my head forever came after his defeat of Guy Mezger, which read “Gay Mezger is my b*tch.”

While the act was shocking to many and provoked Ken Shamrock into a raging fury, I’m most struck by how UFC matchmaker Joe Silva recalls the moment: "When I think back and remember all the cool things, all the exciting and crazy things in the UFC, that night is definitely burned into my memory."

There was no public outcry over the choice of words. I reached out to MMA historian Jonathan Snowden to get his read on the culture those days, and he remembers the most shocking part of Tito’s antics being that they resembled pro wrestling more than martial arts. Homophobia was more de rigueur than déclassé in those days.

Sounds downright pleasant, eh? It should be noted that Ortiz’s fights with Shamrock resulted in a number of successful PPV’s.

GOATs lock horns

A truly great moment in UFC trash talk history came in the aftermath of the brawl between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier.