Josh Thomson is a big fucking baby

October 3, 2007 – 7:22 pm by fightlinker

Did you know that being called a homosexual is such an insult that you can sue someone for slander over it? Up until this point it’s mainly politicians and such who take matters to the court when a major newspaper tries to smear them by ‘outing’ them as gay. But now we’ve reached a new milestone in mixed martial arts history: when talking shit about a guy can get you slapped with court papers.

PDG: Last night during the broadcast on Yahoo sports, Frank Shamrock was commentating. When you entered the ring Frank said that you were “The first openly gay fighter in mixed martial arts.”

Josh: Yea I know I have been hearing about that. I think that my agent is in the process of hiring a lawyer to file a lawsuit against Frank for slander. We’ll see how that goes.

The reason what Shamrock did is considered slander is because it wasn’t obvious to the average person that this was a joke. That might seem like an unimportant distinction, but trust me it is. That’s why on this site I can call fighters fags and drunks and rapists and molesters and not get into trouble. My site is so obviously retarded that no one can potentially take me seriously. Free speech is designed to protect comedians, satirists, and even low-brow humorists like myself.

On the other hand, Frank Shamrock deadpanned the statement in such a way that he was trying to pass it off as real. As soon as you’re trying to deceive people into thinking something is true that isn’t, and that thing affects another person’s reputation or livelihood … bam! That’s slander for ya.

Anyways, perhaps if this had happened on NBC or something I’d be concerned. But honestly, only the hardcore MMA fans streamed the Strikeforce show off Yahoo Sports. And then only the most hardcore of the hardcore managed to watch long enough to hear Frank’s comment. So yeah, maybe a couple TUF Noobs think Josh is gay. At least they’ll remember who is is now.

**UPDATE** I originally used the term libel instead of slander in this article. Libel is written, slander is spoken. I hope no one is studying for the bar exam using the stuff I write on the blog or they might get that question wrong.