Morning Report: Brendan Schaub admits ‘I put my foot in my mouth’ talking about all-black UFC on FOX panel

In February, former UFC heavyweight contender Brendan Schaub made a controversial statement about an all-black UFC Tonight panel, suggesting that FOX was “checking off the boxes” instead of employing the best panel possible. Yves Edwards, who was on the panel Schaub was commenting on, took offense to the statement, prompting Schaub to apologize via social media. Edwards accepted the apology and the minor beef was squashed; that is, until a few weeks later when Schaub reignited the feud by giving another interview addressing the subject, this time saying that Edwards only took umbrage with his comments because ofpersonal insecurities.

Needless to say, Edwards was not pleased with Schaub’s latest statements but “Big Brown” has once again come out to address their issues, and this time it is fully with hat in hand. On the most-recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show, Schaub explained his side of the entire incident and apologized to Edwards for everything, saying that his own comments were “so stupid” and “make zero sense.”

“I couldn’t even tell you the point I was trying to make,” Schaub explained. “If someone was like, ‘I’ll give you a million dollars to tell me the point you were trying to make,’ I’d be like, ‘I forget.’ I remember I had Kevin Lee on and before that I was 20 minutes deep on why I think DC [Daniel Cormier], besides you [Joe Rogan], as a commentator and why he’s the future of the sport. Before that show me and Bryan [Callen] were talking about something with race and men and women and somehow that entered my brain.

“I have no animosity towards UFC Tonight. It’s one of my favorite shows. I’ve worked with Karyn Bryant for over 10 years. She’s a good friend. Woodley, DC, Kenny Florian’s a good friend. Bisping’s a good buddy. . . It makes zero sense. . .

“Yves was upset. . . So then I sent Yves a text and I thought it was squashed and I was doing PR for my show and someone brought it up and I went, ‘Again, I meant no offense. I come up with about 10 hours of content a week. I can’t even tell you what I was saying. I messed up. Whoever had problems with it, if it’s Yves Edwards, that’s his own insecurities.’ That was so stupid. I couldn’t even tell you what he should be insecure about. It makes no sense.

“Again, I don’t know Yves that well at all, but I lost sleep over this. Like, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing?’ I have respect for him. He’s a pioneer at 155 [pounds]. Again, I love all the people at UFC Tonight. I watch the show all the god damn time.”

Schaub has parlayed his UFC career into a notable role in the the MMA media space. He hosts a successful podcast with Bryan Callen called The Fighter and the Kid and recently began his own Showtime Sports digital talk show called “Below the Belt,” a twice-monthly, 30-minute show discussing the latest in combat sports and pop culture, mixing in interviews and other content segments. He even offered Edwards the chance to come on his show so they could hash things out face-to-face.

“It makes no sense,” said Schaub. “I apologize to Yves. It’s all good. I told him there’s an open-door policy if he wants to come on my show, we can talk about it there.”

Schaub ended his apology by once again admitting fault but saying that this probably won’t be the last time he says something stupid.

“I put my foot in my mouth and I hate to tell you, it’s probably gonna happen again,” concluded Schaub. “I wish I could say it’s not but it’s probably gonna happen again. Sometimes you take some swings and you miss. I can’t even tell you what ball I was trying to hit. I was taking swings at balls, and I didn’t even know what I was hitting. Sometimes that s**t happens.”