THE FIGHT NETWORK

[Zorax]

-- Just what kind of 18-30 year old crowd IS Mma attracting??

((This post is duplicated on the media happenings board.))

-- It would seem not the most desirable as written in this Spring 2008/issue 129 issue of Intelligence Report.
LINK:: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=898


"Melvin "Man-o-war" Costa has a classic Nazi eagle and swastika insignia tattooed across his chest and a prison gang spider web inked on his right elbow.

Costa, 26, also is a convicted felon, self-avowed white nationalist and currently the 10th-ranked light heavyweight fighter in King of the Cage, one of the most popular semi-professional "mixed martial arts"

Not surprisingly, this rapidly rising blood sport is likewise wildly popular among racist skinheads and other young extremists with a thirst for violence. Many white supremacist online forums have recently established discussion groups devoted specifically to MMA; skinhead gangs across the country are raising money by hosting illegal backyard tournaments; and retired white supremacist cage fighter Mike Buell runs a major MMA training school in Arizona whose logo is a Celtic cross (often used as a white supremacist symbol) and the phrase "Hail Victory" (the German equivalent is "sieg heil").

Costa, however, is the first openly white nationalist MMA fighter to become a Top Ten-ranked competitor in a sanctioned organization like King of the Cage

" Costa told leading MMA sportswriter Sam Caplan last October. "I do believe in the purity, security, and the survival of the white race. … When I come down that [fighter entrance] ramp and people see me, they know I'm white power." Costa did clarify, however, that he considers himself a white nationalist rather than a neo-Nazi because "[a] neo-Nazi holds Hitler's beliefs to be true down to a T. I don't. I believe in Hitler's point of view as far as racial consonance but I don't believe a lot of [his] things as far as controlling the economy."

"I don't feel pain. No fuckin' brain, no pain!" he said then. Over the next six months he reeled off three successive knockout victories. Southern California skinheads in full dress — boots, suspenders, bomber jackets — began showing up at King of the Cage events in droves to cheer on the Aryan warrior, whose swastika tattoo, outspoken white nationalist ideology and growing skinhead fan base presented MMA promoters with a public relations dilemma.""

-- Just one of a few articles I've seen about Skinhead culture and mma.