Fascism in Combat Sports

Martial arts has a long history of having ties with militarism. Obviously in the skills themselves but also in the ways that dojos/gyms are structured and conduct themselves. From the “belt system” that validly denotes skill level but also creates hierarchy and a deference to the master/sensei, to the culture of hyper-masculinity, might makes right, suck it up snowflake. And these toxic hyper-masculinity traits, while unsavory in and of themselves, are also traits that fascistic players latch onto, laud, promote and utilize to sway people in that sphere to their side. Because the myth of the rugged individual that tamed this land could only do so with guns, bombs and hyper aggression. A promised land for a chosen few that needed civilizing. Tied into that ethos is a nationalism that sees a select few as the deserving people and everyone else as either invaders or subservient labor to feed their decadence. And that wealth must be horded and protected by any means, largely violence. So the growing presence/business of self defense courses with hands and weapons cater largely to white (whiteness as a man made social construct), upper middle class, managerial class, bourgeois aspiring people. So that they'll have the means to protect their wealth and position from the dangerous foreigners, migrants, wanting to take their hard earned blood money. Migrants threaten their “national identity”. Immigration laws are made to protect that.

So it is an easy pipeline for fascists to seed their values into a very masc sphere and wend people onto their side. “Active clubs” are popping up more and more. The term used by fascists to refer to spaces where fascists can train together. It is increasingly common to see “blue lives matter” flags adorning the walls of gyms. I've seen trump banners in certain spaces as well. Various symbols displaying skulls and various “apex predators” are routine to see, ancient civilizations being a curious fixation of fascists who adore rome and other ancient civilizations and want to go back to those perfect, mythical times at the peak of “whiteness”. Fascists are a special breed of idiocy. And one of the most prominent pipelines to white supremacy and fascism is number one spotify podcaster joe rogan.

For those who are fortunately unaware joe rogan is a D list comedian whose goto bits are about weed, masturbation, fitness and mma. He also does commentary for the “Ultimate Fighting Championship” (ufc). On his podcast his guests have run the gamut of conspiracy theorists, pseudo-science supporters and white-supremacists. The white-supremacists being Canadian nationalist stefan molyneux, far right personality milo yiannopoulos, right wing conspiracy theorist alex jones, nazi sympathizer jordan peterson and out right founder of the proud boys gavin mcinnes. Joe's schtick has always been that he wants to bring on different perspectives from all sides yet often will hardly push back on problematic or fallacious guests and has a history of denigrating feminism, woke culture, trans people, who he has said could be predators who just want to sneak into women's bathrooms, and anyone who threatens his fragile masculinity. Funny that someone who is a bigot towards the trans community is on a heap load of exogenous testosterone himself, which enables him to be more athletic and muscular, which is ironic cause is that not “gender affirming care” for himself? He has routinely used the “n word” countless times but a lot of it has been scrubbed from the internet by his media team. He condemned Richard Spencer being punched, he is a staunch advocate for “men's rights”, during BLM he rebutted that “all live matter”, he diminished the white supremacist hand signal saying it was just everyone overreacting, he spread right wing lies about covid, and generally pals around with apartheid emerald mine trust fund fascist elon musk and toy store fascist trump. But that aging libertarian is just a glimpse into the world that fuels his hyper masculinity and that is the ufc.

The ufc is the number one mixed martial arts promotion in the world, “One Fighting Championship” being the number one is Asia. The purpose of the ufc is see what martial arts practitioner's certain blend of martial disciplines is best. As a platform for competition it is an interesting stage to observe the ensuing clashes of styles. As a conduit for certain philosophies and aesthetics it is an environment rife with misogyny, racism and fascism. From general gross attitudes towards mma fighters who are women (joe rogan repeatedly making the joke that one fighter, Cristiane Santos, has a bigger dick than men just because she is muscular and has a big frame), to ufc fighters like donald cerone and mac danzig being sponsored by a literal fascist apparel company “Hoelzer Reich”. The ufc eventually banned said apparel company, of course not from any moral stance but because of criticism from third parties. Fighter holly holm, upon winning a recent fight took to the mic that people need to “protect the children”, a dog whistle from the right for protecting children from dangerous queer people who prey upon kids. Wannabe fascist donald trump frequently attends ufc events and everytime he enters the stadium the cameras takes a moment to pan over to him and the whole stadium of thousands cheer. Longtime referee of the ufc, Miguel “Mike” Beltran is a former LASD deputy for almost two decades. The same department that the violent “Los Banditos” deputy gang operates from. The FBI has investigated the gang for murder, extortion and more. One lawsuit named Miguel Beltran specifically. In the lawsuit a prisoner asked Beltran to be separated from the general gang population because he feared for his life. After the interview Beltran ignored the request and placed the prisoner in the general gang population. The prisoner was of course brutally attacked, with rival gang members shouting during the beating: “Beltran gave you up punk”. There are various symbols for “Los Banditos”, however it is only in one context that the symbol comes with the “ELA” letters, which symbolizes the person's membership to the “East Los Angeles Banditos Gang”. When Jair Bolsonaro was president of Brazil, many Brazilian fighters wholeheartedly supported him, from legendary fighters Wanderlei Silva to Antonio Nogueira. Fighter Deiveson Figueiredo supported the attempted coup upon democratically elected Luiz Silva, posting in his whatsapp “invade Brasilia” and “either a free country remains or we die for Brazil” and encouraged rioters to “camp inside the congress”. But some of biggest supports of Bolsonaro is the family that founded one of the most prominent martial arts styles, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (bjj), and helped start the ufc, and that is the Gracies.

Contrary to the popular narrative that bjj is a humble martial art started by the working class Brazilians, bjj has it's roots in the bourgeois. One of the first Gracie's to come over from Europe was Archibald Gracie from Scotland. He was a shipping magnate and was the director of New York's earliest bank, a director of the United States Bank and Bank of America. His mansion, Gracie mansion, was a residence and a few other iterations until 1942 when it was turned into the official mayoral residence of New York City. One of his sons, Archibald Gracie III was a brigadier general for the confederate army. Another, Archibald Gracie IV was a real estate investor and survivor of the Titanic sinking. Great grandfather George Gracie also immigrated from Scotland to Brazil and became the director of the Bank of Brazil. So on two sides of the family tree you have the director of Bank of America and Bank of Brazil. And what did the family do with all of their literal and social capital? Co-opt Jiu Jitsu from the Japanese that had migrated to Brazil and make their own spin on it, hence Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. The person who is considered the “founder” (colonizing extracter) of bjj is Helio Gracie, who was also a member of the integralist party, the Brazilian equivalent of the Nazi brown shirts, although they wore green shirts and used the phrase: “god country and family”. The fascist Vargas regime trained it's Policia Especial in bjj. Bjj was also used culturally as a way to assert one's masculinity and to promote the ideal “Brazilian Man”. Bjj was used by nationalists to become a weapon of the state. Being utilized by it's practitioners upon immigrants, lgbtq people and opposing dojos where Gracies frequently “dojo stormed” other dojos to assert their dominance. It stole aspects from “lesser” martial arts like Japanese Jiu Jitsu and caporea, to create a “higher” art: bjj.

And one of the biggest Gracie institutions is their main academy “Renzo Gracie bjj”, the nearest one in the heart of williamsburg. The person that the gym is named after is the former tourism ambassador of Brazil when Bolsonaro was in power. He has routinely tweeted nazi quotes with no shame. One was: “My honor is my loyalty” -Heinrich Himmler. And when there was push back he replied: “It's not my fault that your grandparents let them march through your country without a fight. That's what's produced your soft generation to vote in your president”. A reply to a French man that is simply woefully uneducated. Generally educated individuals would have solidarity with the French Revolution, the partisans fighting off the nazis etc. But critical thinking isn't fascist's strong suit. With his history of stepping on the back of his opponents head in his second professional fight, to him getting into an altercation with some drunk party goers at a New York club, where he proceeded to beat them up, let them go, follow them and beat them up again multiple times, it is clear that humanity, self reflection and general decent human behavior is at a deficit in many in that family.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is now a world known martial art and is also taught to american police forces. Through nationalism, extraction from other martial arts and social and literal capital, it has become the cudgel of fascists of yesteryear and of fascists to this day. But never forget that corporations are nothing more than a collection of assets controlled by a select few individuals. You identify the assets, identify the leaders and free the subjugated. A corporation is nothing more than a machine to control it's workers and consumers. Identify the cogs within and deal accordingly.