Miguel Torres has been released from the UFC for an offensive tweet posted to his Twitter account earlier this week.
UFC president Dana White confirmed the release in an interview with Sports Illustrated on Thursday.
The fighter's profile had already been removed from UFC.com by Friday morning.
Torres, a former WEC bantamweight champion, tweeted: "If a rape van was called a surprise van more women wouldn't mind going for rides in them. Everyone likes surprises."
Torres tried to defend his comments on Twitter, saying it was only a joke, after receiving a backlash of negative comments from some of his followers. MMAFighting.com confirmed with Torres that the comment was a quote from the television show, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which he was watching at the time of the tweet.
But White did not see the humor in the comments and took quick action with the fighter.
"Now there's no explanation for that," White told SI.com. "And the fact that he (Torres) even thinks that's funny or that's a joke, it disturbs me. It bothers me.
"Miguel Torres has been cut from the UFC, and his career with us now is over."
White elaborated that this was the first incident of this nature involving Torres, but the organization deals with these situations on a case-by-case basis.
On Friday, Torres released a statement on the situation through his website, MiguelTorresMMA.com.
"I am very sorry for upsetting my bosses at the UFC, and also to my fans and everyone else who was upset by the language in my tweets," Torres stated. "I understand it was wrong, and I meant no harm or disrespect. Given the chance, I will do whatever it takes to make things right. I am going to learn from this.
"I am going to use this to improve myself, and I hope that my fans will continue to support me.”
Torres fought three times in the UFC last year, going 2-1 in those fights with each going to a decision. Torres was 5-2 in the WEC before entering the UFC, winning the bantamweight championship at WEC 32 with a submission victory over Chase Beebe.
Torres defended the belt three times before dropping the title to Brian Bowles at WEC 42.
