Fighting for the Fuck of It
How European hooligan culture, forest fights, and underground promotions are reshaping far right fighting culture inside martial arts.
TLDR: Far right groups increasingly frame violence itself as a social identity, celebrating the capacity for violence rather than the development of skill. They borrow from the nationalist scenes from Europe, and incorporate what they see into American white supremacy culture. This article traces hooligan culture, to forest fights, to American neo-Nazi groups.
I’ve spent a lot of time focused on Active Clubs. They represent a perfect cross section of the issues I care about that are affecting martial arts. As much as I see Active Clubs as a legitimate threat, they are also a small part of the problem. Far right extremism has much more breadth, and fighting is at the center of much of it. This article looks at how that culture of fighting, from European hooliganism to underground American promotions, is reshaping far-right organizing inside martial arts.
When you train martial arts for a long time you begin to see fighting differently. It’s no longer violence. It’s strategy. Techniques. Challenges posed and problem solving that must be worked through. This is the beauty of martial arts, and is where true skill is developed. Students of the game see never ending paths for development. A humbling experience that offers a life of learning.
When the martial arts steps into a competition, or a fight, its a test. Calibrating weaknesses against unknown opponents at maximum resistance. But in my experience, the deepest growth happens in preparation, reflection, and coaching after the fact with experienced coaches.
In truth, competitions aren’t even necessary. I’ve trained with the best competitors in the world. I know what it feels like. I know what they sacrificed. I’ve also trained with people who have never competed, and are tremendously talented. You are tested every day, and with conscious effort and focus there is also a learning path that you can pursue.
That path you take with others, and the relationships built in the process add more value to the experience than anything. It also offers a lot of lessons about what we can accomplish when we support each other. Different backgrounds, lifestyles, goals, fitness levels. It doesn’t matter. A team is diverse, and everyone brings something to the table that helps build a great room. Its probably the most valuable lesson of all, and its what we should apply to life and society.
What happens when fighting loses that developmental context is something very different, and that’s where parts of the far right have taken it.
Fighting For The Fuck Of It
What I see on the far right is a glorification of violence. As if the will to commit violence is more important than the skill involved and process. Low skilled young men tumble and pummel each other and then push it to their telegrams as if its a marketing ploy. What are the ends to this behavior, where the glorification is more important than the development of self? Who engages in this nonsense?
For Violence Sake
Hooliganism
Hooligan culture is largely foreign to many American martial artists, but it has shaped far right fighting culture across Europe for decades. It stems from “Ultras”, groups of hardcore soccer fans that collectively cheer on a team, and create an intense atmosphere of support. These groups create an identity. Young men go to games, spend time together, cheer on their team, party afterwards, and create strong in/out group dynamics around a team.
Those in/out group dynamics can turn violent. Competing ultras with competing identities face off in the streets and engage in large scale brawls. These brawls became a culture in themselves, and spawned hooligan culture. Essentially, gangs of young men facing off with each other after soccer games.
Hooligan culture is important to understanding how fighting is used on the far right. There is no martial arts to this. No skill development. No character building. Just us vs them, and fighting as an activity to be chased. Within that environment, figures connected to modern Active Clubs began to emerge. Dennis Nikiten, friend of Robert Rundo and ideological co-founder of Active Clubs was a hooligan. He glorified these street fights as tests of courage. Something akin to medieval armies clashing on the battle field.
All throughout Europe hooliganism plagued cities, and has become intertwined with nationalist culture. Cities and professional sports teams have pushed back, cracking down on the behavior and shifting the nature of how hooliganism materializes.
Forest Fights
As cities have cracked down on hooliganism, hooligans have moved to forest fights. Pre arranged meet ups in forests, away from cops, cameras, and media. Teams with dozens of men each go at it, no longer lost in the excitement of sports and team rivalry, and squarely entrenched in fighting for the sake of fighting. Hooliganism is violent thuggery, attached to sport mania. Forest fights remove even the sports context, turning violence itself into the primary activity.
The idea of forest fights has leaked into American far right culture. Paul Waggener, known neo nazi and owner of Devotion Jiu Jitsu, is organizing forest fights stateside. Its a trend that plays out time and time again. Right wing extremist groups in the states model their behavior off European nationalists.
This path from hooligan culture to American neo-nazi groups is a fairly straight line, with several junction points along the way at Active Clubs. This history and connection is important to understanding what is driving these trends in far right culture, and it gives is a window into possibly what will happen next. IE: look to the European nationalist scene.
Streets Fight Club
There are several no rules fighting organizations around the world. The most popular of which is probably King of the Streets. These events are billed as no holds barred, although fighters can agree to rules themselves. Biting, eye gouging, all seemingly “legal”, as fighters slam in each other on concrete. I’m doing the world a bit of a disservice by describing the events this way. This glorification is what they want.
Watching these events you will find that fights unfold differently. Some fighters are clearly taking advantage of the open rules setting. Some show mercy, and only do what is necessary. This description isn’t what these orgs want to portray though. Violence, or anticipation of violence, is the point.
A smaller organization that seems to have appeared in America around 2022 is Streets Fight Club (SFC). The best article on SFC so far was written by the Guardian, back in October. Streets Fight Club started in Spain, by a couple of Russians, and is now holding events around the world.
The American side of the organization is ran by an Active Club member that trains out of the Lone Star Active Club in Texas. His name is Avery Ruiz, and goes by the fight name Panzzer. He reached out to the European organizers, and asked to run an American division. They agreed, and SFC America was born.
The SFC events are small, and organized more like a social group meet up than a professional event showing. Given the organizer, these social gatherings are heavily represented by Active Club members, who engage in some of the fighting themselves.
The fighters are told they will get a percent of pay per view money, but don’t always get paid. Pay per views are hosted on obscure websites, and end up getting shut down. The events can currently be watched on a Russian streaming service, and depict fairly low skilled fighters meeting in abandoned places to beat each other up.
SFC seems to be sponsored by Shark Boxing, an apparel company out of Spain. Shark Boxing ships merch out prior to events for everyone to wear, but it remains unclear whether the relationship extends beyond apparel support. I’ve reached out to Shark Boxing and its owner, but did not get a response.
There is an aesthetic to all of this. The clothes, social media posts, and marketing have a clear branding. Its not unique. Its a look shared across the nationalist scene and reflects a lifestyle. This is important. A lifestyle is part of what they are selling, and violence is at the center of it.
Violent Connections
There are connections to these platforms for violence. The pattern isn’t random, it reflects a transnational exchange of aesthetics, training culture, and recruitment models. White supremacist groups in America, such as Active Clubs and the Patriot Front, are looking to Europe as a model for nationalism. What we see in Europe, they begin to model here. Its a trend that holds up time and time again. Rundo often states this explicitly in interviews, often criticizing the US and expressing his preference for Eastern Europe.
The culture of violence for the sake of it from hooligan culture is being used by neo nazi groups as a litmus test. Its a right of passage, and a gut check for who belongs in the in-group. The people orchestrating these trends are a network of white supremacists that are all working together. SFC, Devotion BJJ, Active Clubs, Patriot Front. These guys all know each other, and train together.
This is important to recognize for several reasons.
One, it can seem like the nationalist cause is growing. It is, but not at the rate that it appears. You have the same network of guys pushing their agenda through different platforms. It makes it appear like there is a lot more nationalist organization happening than there actually is.
Two, their culture centers spectacle and identity over the long term skill development that defines martial arts. They fight for the sake of violence, because they think that it is a social identifier that makes them tough. They don’t understand martial arts, and certainly don’t have many skills. Yet, they associate themselves with BJJ for the sake of credibility. They can only do this if we let them.
Three, anonymity is important to the nationalist project. The more that we can expose and bring to light the better. The best pathway to finding out who is behind the rise of white supremacy in America is through following social networks. One will lead you to another.
The Martial Way
In highlighting these organizations I present social structures with a fleeting relationship with martial arts, and a radical relationship with glorified violence. The broader world of martial arts offers its own set of social structures. Teams, affiliations, and competition circuits with their own culture. The far right wants to infiltrate the broader martial arts scene, and people in the community have a responsibility to keep them out.
This can be done with transparency about identity. The martial artist believes in diverse communities, the nationalist believes in white supremacy. The martial artist engages in violence as a means to self improvement. The nationalist engages in violence for the sake of glorifying violence and ones capacity to commit it. We must define ourselves and our social structures clearly, in order to exclude the nationalist from our spaces and skill sets.
Update: Since publication, Shark Boxing responded to my outreach and stated that they do not sponsor SFC, and only provide t-shift orders.
If you have any information about extremist groups in martial arts, please email me at SubmittingDisinfo@ProtonMail.com