A long-running criticism of sports media with access, especially those seen as being overly favorable to athletes, has been the term “jock-sniffers.” That came out in a much more literal way than normal at a UFC Fight Night event in St. Louis Saturday night. This started with headliner Derrick Lewis taking off his shorts after his TKO of Rodrigo Nascimento, fanning Nascimento’s face with them, and jogging around with them:
The shorts are off
We repeat, the shorts are OFF‼️#UFCStLouis | @TheBeast_UFC pic.twitter.com/bvSkQCdxq6
— UFC (@ufc) May 12, 2024
In that process, Lewis removed the cup of his athletic supporter. He then threw it into the media seating area:
Dana gonna give Derrick Lewis $50K just for throwing his cup at the media section.pic.twitter.com/5vvtbnXPJp
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 12, 2024
And he then mooned the crowd:
https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/1789477967178985930
But this got stranger still at the post-fight press conference, where a media member asked UFC CEO Dana White to sign it (and he did):
Media member asks Dana White to sign the Derrick Lewis cup he caught.#UFCStLouis pic.twitter.com/NBzXdHMauH
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 12, 2024
“Very last question, it’s not a question, I was lucky enough to get Derrick Lewis’ cup. Would you mind signing it?” “Uh, I would prefer not to. You were very lucky to catch that.” “It was right in front of me. He signed it.” “It’s your lucky day.” “I would like you to sign it.” “Okay. Sure.”
That media member then had an exchange with Lewis about it, including saying it “doesn’t smell bad at all”:
https://twitter.com/MMAJunkie/status/1789499522852196671
This was far from the only strange thing to take place in that press conference. (Amongst other things, there was also a reporter asking White if he could get retired UFC fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone to brand her, and a discussion about the FedEx driver fired after White’s tweet about him.) And it’s far from the only odd thing to happen at a press conference. But, as with that branding discussion, using press conference questions for personal promotion isn’t great, and getting items signed there is even more absurd. And literal jock-sniffing and autographing isn’t a great look for media.
[Yahoo Sports; screengrabs from Jed L. Goodman on Twitter/X.]