Tony Kelley has clarified the comments he made about Brazilians ahead of his return to the Octagon this weekend.

This Saturday night at UFC Austin, Tony Kelley will be part of the featured prelim as he prepares to go head to head with Adrian Yanez. The bout serves as an important crossroads moment for both men in their respective MMA careers, but in many ways, that isn’t the real story of the fight.

Kelley is best known by many for saying “that’s what they’re going to do, they’re dirty f***ing Brazilians, they’re going to f***ing cheat like that” to his girlfriend Andrea Lee following an illegal eye poke by her opponent Viviane Araujo.

Many Brazilian fighters condemned Kelley with Gilbert Burns even suggesting he would send Yanez money if he’s able to score a finish against him.

Now, in a recent interview, Kelley has told his side of the story.

https://twitter.com/GilbertDurinho/status/1525661055740960768

“People feel like I’m blaming cancel culture or whatever. No, ultimately, I’m talking sh*t about cancel culture because my job is to relay information in the corner, and I’m really not focused on if I offend somebody or not,” Kelley said. “That’s the last thing on my mind. If you go back and you actually watch the fight, everyone’s like ‘aww you’re a dumbass, why would you say that on international television? Well I didn’t. If you watch the fight, you’ll never hear it air. It was not aired. So somebody clipped that out and sent it off into the Twitterverse just to get at me.”

“Yeah of course I said that, but obviously I misspoke and everyone who knows me knows that. But at the end of the day, to give a little bit of clarification on that, it was just regarding an eye poke, I don’t mean to categorize a whole nation of Brazil. I think most people understand that, but there’s other people who just want to play the victim on that.”

“Actually I dislike everyone equally, I’ll put it that way. So I think pretty much I’ve answered all that, much love to my Brazilian fans and friends. If you don’t like what I said, I don’t know what to tell you on that, sorry. Sorry if you got your feelings hurt.”

Quotes via Cageside Press

What are your thoughts on the Tony Kelley incident?