This is Kampf der Nibelungen,
the largest far-right MMA festival of recent years.
At its height, thousands of neo-Nazis flocked from across Europe to attend.
Inside the ring, far-right fighters face off against each other.
Outside, neo-Nazi fans use it as a major networking hub.
It’s a fast-growing scene that has become more than just a sport.
For many in the far right, it’s a lifestyle,
where the skills learned can be used against their political enemies.
This is the story of the far-right MMA scene.
[DECADE OF HATE]
Disturbingly, Kampf der Nibelungen
is just one of many far-right MMA promotions around the globe
that stage events, sell branded products,
and push a racist, hypermasculine ideology.
In Greece, there’s Pro Patria,
one of the founders of which
was involved in the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn.
In France, there's Pride France,
whose leadership has been linked to racist and homophobic attacks.
But to tell the story of far-right MMA,
you need to begin with White Rex in Russia.
White Rex, I would call
the big player of the far-right combat sports scene.
White Rex was launched in 2008
by a Russian neo-Nazi football hooligan called Denis Nikitin.
Nikitin began White Rex
by selling clothing emblazoned with far-right slogans.
But it was in 2011, when he started running whites-only MMA tournaments,
that his empire really started to grow.
Russia is a huge, multiethnic country,
and various combat sports in Russia
have been historically featuring quite a lot of ethnic diversity
and fighters from all corners of Russia and abroad.
Famously, many of the good fighters come from the North Caucasus,
and this was something that was unacceptable for the neo-Nazis.
Basically, the fighters from the North Caucasus
were, simply put, defeating them every time they went in the ring.
So Nikitin offered them an excuse,
offered them an opportunity to participate in the MMA tournaments
where all the fighters were white.
Nikitin had struck on a winning formula,
using the rising popularity of mixed martial arts to grow his brand.
Soon, White Rex tournaments were being held across Europe,
often staged with local far-right groups,
making Nikitin a key figure on the European extremist scene.
With slick advertising and socials,
White Rex pitched itself as not just a fight promotion company
but an all-encompassing lifestyle brand
selling active gear and weaponry.
They were no longer selling just the sport
but a way of life.
They are appealing to a very traditional, in their understanding,
natural interpretation of masculinity.
So it's all about historic fighters.
There are lots of T-shirts
and also activities where they go into the woods,
they make their fires,
so trying to present a somehow un-modern or pre-modern masculinity,
which is able to survive in hard circumstances on its own power.
It’s a neo-Nazi propaganda
done by people with some skills in design, in marketing.
The image that is constructed is that of a warrior
that is always ready to fight using some of the Nordic symbolism,
and they believe that they need to defend something.
Some of them define it as Christianity.
Some of them define it as white European heritage.
Others are just protesting
or revolting against the modern world.
And it’s been massively successful.
White Rex has a huge fan base across social media,
despite having been kicked off major platforms.
Page after page of young men
who are not only buying their products
but their racist ideology.
And this hasn’t gone unnoticed around the world.
Copycats have sprung up globally.
The most successful
was set up by an American neo-Nazi named Robert Rundo.
If anyone who wants to know, this is what we’re about.
It’s Rise Above Movement.
Robert Rundo is a really significant force in the far-right space,
and I would venture to say that
he is one of the most dangerous white supremacists
currently active in the mixed martial arts space.
When Robert Rundo looked at Denis Nikitin,
he saw an example— someone he can copy
and someone he could become a small version of for the US market.
Rundo co-founded The Rise Above Movement,
basically the US version of White Rex.
Billing itself as the premier MMA club of the alt-right,
the group claimed to have more than 50 members
and forged links with far-right groups in Europe.
Things were going pretty well for the group.
Well, tonight four men are facing federal charges
for inciting a riot.
That’s until Rundo and other Rise Above Movement members
were charged after attacking counter-demonstrators
at MAGA rallies across the US.
In a 25-page federal indictment,
four more members of the white nationalist group Rise Above Movement
were charged with inciting a riot in Huntington Beach.
These events underline the danger of the far-right MMA scene—
groups who are training specifically for political violence.
So basically, for many of the neo-Nazis who are practicing MMA,
almost a natural next step is being prepared yourself,
so keeping your body and keeping your fighting skills up to date.
But that obviously isn’t enough,
and the logical next step is acquiring weapons.
That starts with knives,
and it’s only a matter of time when the next neo-Nazi MMA fighter
will take up firearms and commit a terrorist attack.
So as the far-right MMA scene continues to grow globally,
what are mainstream MMA organizations actually doing to combat extremism?
If you really want to fight extremism,
well, you have to actually fight it.
You can’t just react to the instances when they happen
and claim they're just occasional.
And that’s pretty much all the UFC or Bellator,
the two main MMA promotions, have done to date.
There have been several cases of fighters
with links to the far-right MMA scene signing on for them,
like Anastasia Yankova,
who made her debut as a fighter for White Rex
and is now signed to Bellator;
Benjamin Brinsa, an alleged German neo-Nazi
known for organizing rallies against refugees,
who was signed in 2013;
and Timo Feucht,
another alleged far-right hooligan, who was signed in 2020.
Both Brinsa and Feucht had their offers quickly rescinded by the UFC,
but how did it get this far?
The fact that the UFC parent companies Zuffa and Strikeforce
at the time allowed this to happen
shows the extreme level of ignorance and incompetence
when it comes to matters of racism and extremism in these sports.
And unfortunately, from 2012 all the way to 2021,
we still see these instances, and matters still have not improved.
Meanwhile, back on the scene,
Nikitin’s formula shows no signs of losing its appeal.
He and Rundo have even started their own podcast together,
giving listeners guidance
on how to set up their own white supremacist fight clubs.
I also thought: what would be the best way to promote
the values of my brand— strength, unity, fraternity,
brotherhood, camaraderie?
The best way to promote that would be to start an MMA tournament.
With MMA one of the most popular sports on the planet,
all eyes are on the mainstream promoters
to step up their game in tackling far-right extremism.