In April, Ryan Garcia defeated Devin Haney in one of the most strangely promoted fights in recent memory.
The reactions were swift, but one of the most disturbing sentiments delved into religion, and that’s when the ugly side of combat sports reared its ugly head.
Haney is a Muslim, and some used his loss to mock Islam and call it the religion of a false prophet and other derogatory things.
It was infuriating to read for the fight, as strange as the pre-promotion and Garcia’s antics were, degrading religion was never in the mix.
It’s a perfect example of the bigotry, racism, ignorance and hatred that so often infiltrates combat sports, an issue these sports rarely seem to address.
The Far Right Loves The Fight Game
In March at a bare-knuckle boxing event in Canada promoted by the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), a Montana-based fighter named Sam Polk, aka “Blunt Force Trauma,” destroyed his opponent in just over a minute in the first round. While that was exciting, the backstory behind Polk is not.
In a story by Sam Eagan in Front Office Sports, Eagan writes that Polk is an Army veteran who is sponsored by MurderTheMedia, “a far-right outlet founded by a Proud Boys leader who was sentenced to prison time for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection.”
Eagan noted that Polk had two sonnenrads tattooed on his chest. The symbols, known as black suns, are ancient European symbols associated with neo-Nazi movements and the far right. Even worse, after Polk’s victory, neo-Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus, leader of the Blood Tribe, took to social media and posted screenshots of what he alleged were text messages between him and Polk, and claimed the win to be a “Total Aryan Victory.”
In response, BKFC founder David Feldman stated the following:
“We were not aware of Polk’s sponsor or [alleged] ties to these groups,” Feldman told the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Him or any other fighter who fights for organizations who support white supremacist beliefs are not welcome and will not fight in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.”
Yet Polk is still listed on the organization’s roster.
Extremism has infiltrated and spread throughout combat sports, and leaders employ combat sports as an effective recruiting tool because these bigoted movements are loosely or rarely policed by sanctioning bodies.
Embracing Ignorance In MMA And Boxing
We’ve witnessed it in MMA, where some UFC promotions boil down to race wars and political battles.
The December 2019 and November 2021 UFC fights between Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington devolved into Black vs. white and never-Trumpers vs MAGA.
Covington proudly wore his red MAGA hat and paraded his support for Trump at every press conference, transforming the fight into a political promotion for the former president.
But the sport thrives off racial, ethnic and political tension, so the more personal, the better.
Leading up to their first match at UFC 229 in 2018, Conor McGregor attacked Khabib Nurmagomedov’s religion, father and country. The insults resulted in McGregor’s destruction through a Khabib rear naked choke at the highly anticipated fight. Afterward, a victorious but frustrated Khabib, who had endured weeks of taunts and personal attacks, jumped over the cage and unleashed on members of McGregor’s camp.
But it didn’t stop there.
In an attempt to goad Khabib into a lucrative rematch in 2019, McGregor targeted his wife and posted a picture of their wedding where her face was covered.
“Your wife is a towel mate,” said McGregor in a tweet he deleted a few hours later.
Some ignorant fans thought it was funny, but most didn’t.
