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Opinion: ‘Real Sports’ and the Reality of Our Sport



Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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Opinion writing isn't exactly the hardest of things, but it's not the walk in the park that many folks imagine. I try to be mindful each week, writing about whatever I think is salient and crucial to mixed martial arts, while also trying to keep my finger on the pulse of what people are talking about and what's driving discussion.

In most weeks, I hate the idea of repeating myself, writing an op-ed that is essentially a distillation of whatever I talked about a few days earlier for the “Press Row” segment on the site. Not this week.

If you didn't catch Tuesday's HBO “Real Sports,” well, I can't fathom why. If you care about the sport we're talking about, why? There's nothing more crucial.

Journalist David Scott sat down in front of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and questioned him, not just about his alleged ongoing genocide of gay and trans people in Chechnya, but his well-constructed ploy of using prizefighting to win hearts and minds in his republic, his zealous dream of converting young Chechens, not just into literal fighters, but into ideological savages. As an earnest Scott tried to cut to the heart of a man many view as a monster, Kadyrov rolled his eyes and stroked his beard, feigning boredom. He may not cut the traditional profile of a warlord, but this man seems to be evil personified. Even if you're the sort of head-in-the-sand moron who thinks that politics have no play and purchase in the realm of sports, you can see how Kadyrov is perverting something that we -- you and I -- love. And for what? Megalomania and hatred.

In the last two years, post-Soviet states and more specifically, Chechnya, have become hotbeds for MMA. It's not just the Russian pipeline of wrestlers, judoka and otherwise hard men that has led to this development, it's the fact that there are wealthy investors and financiers injecting cash into the sport. Unfortunately, chief among them has been Kadyrov. Watch his Akhmat Fight Show cards without context and you will undoubtedly be entertained. Turn off the human part of your brain and look at the roster of his Akhmat Fight Team, you'll assuredly be impressed. But we live in the real world, where context does exist, where powerful people in fact do horrible things. The time in which MMA folk can turn a blind eye to these misdeeds is done.

Kadyrov is not some bumbling fool, not the foolish ideologue profiled on John Oliver's “Last Week Tonight” last year, fretting on Instagram over his lost kitten. He may be a prototypical millennial fail son, who inherited the good will and leadership of his people as a result of his father -- Akhmat himself -- fighting for Chechen sovereignty. However, he is not an idiot. He is smart, he is calculating and whether he realizes it or not, stands to destroy a sport we love.

Last October, Kadyrov made international headlines by having his three sons, the youngest just eight years old, fight on national television. No shin guards, no head gear in sight. He was sanctioned by the Kremlin for it. But do you really think it was a political miscue? Do you really believe it was the impudence of an unfit, egotistical leader? Think again.

Kadyrov has corrupted the tragic history of a war-torn people and is actively using it to justify the militarization of young Chechens, instituting a culture where young men are taught to fight and die for the “cause,” a cause he has created, a cause with little historical legitimacy. Kadyrov's cause is to hobnob with celebrities and look like a big shot on social media, to retain power while fashioning himself as a leader and a lion.

And who trained his three children, who should be riding bikes and reading books or whatever the hell else kids do? Abdul-Kerim Edilov, a man with an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract. If you Googled the man, you'd think his professional transgressions started and ended with the fact he accepted a 15-month U.S. Anti-Doping Agency suspension for his positive test for controversial pharmaceutical meldonium.

How about a fighter who actually has stepped into the Octagon? Magomed Bibulatov, former World Series of Fighting champion, may be the best flyweight prospect on the planet and assuming that UFC boss Dana White doesn't make good on his rage-induced promise to shutter the 125-pound division, he will likely fight for a UFC title one day. Read this story, detailing his vehicular accident last September, and tell me that you're excited for him to face Demetrious Johnson.

And yet tons of fighters, most of them managed by Ali Abdel-Aziz, gladly take money and paid trips to Grozny. They get to wear ceremonial daggers, pose with assault rifles and make cash to do it. They aren't nobodies; they're UFC champions. It's not Fight Pass undercarders going to rub elbows with a warlord, it's Fabricio Werdum, Chris Weidman, Frankie Edgar and Frank Mir. Most MMA fans seem keen to defend these fighters, saying “Oh, how could they know they were accepting money from a dogmatic murderer?” Yes, because MMA fighters are apparently idiots who can't type “Kadyrov” into a search query. They know better and don't care, because money is involved and as sad as it is, MMA has a little brother complex that inherently sees itself as illegitimate and its adherents will leap at the first chance to make a quick and easy buck.

Even if you're part of the daft, idiotic “Keep politics out my sports!” crowd, surely you can recognize this is different than whether or not Colin Kaepernick stands for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Ramzan Kadyrov has the temerity to sit in front of another human being and deny that he is systematically killing gay and trans people, sneering, grinning and rolling his eyes. Know why it isn't true? Kadyrov says that there are no gay or trans Chechens and in the off-chance that there is, their families would surely support their execution, lest the purity of Chechen blood be muddied. If you know a single gay or trans person, think of their face; Ramzan Kadyrov wants them to die.

Maybe you don't, maybe you're just a concerned American citizen. Well, you should be alarmed as well, since in the very same “Real Sports” segment, Kadyrov said that not only is the United States not a serious militaristic power, but that he would be happy to incite a nuclear war if America felt a little too froggy, an ideological luxury he can enjoy by virtue of being a patsy for Vladimir Putin. Living in a post-apocalyptic “Mad Max” society gives this man no pause, because he doesn't view himself as a person like the rest of us. He imagines himself as the Night Rider, Lord Humongous, Aunty Entity or most fittingly, Immortan Joe. There is little to no humanity in this man, as he has deluded himself into thinking he is superhuman. He's free to live that delusion because he can throw bricks of cash at Mike Tyson or Floyd Mayweather, have them show up at his palatial estate and do photo ops.

The intersection of MMA and politics will never make all of us satisfied. UFC President Dana White stumps for Donald Trump and outside of Kadyrov in Chechnya, we have Absolute Championship Berkut -- an MMA outfit that has put on brilliant and exciting cards like clockwork over the last two years -- helmed by a man in Mairbek Khasiev who recently turned down a Nike sponsorship because the company was daring enough to take Manny Pacquiao to task for his comments about gays. Khasiev, in fact, wound up offering a chilling soundbite even more horrifying than anything that came out of Pacquiao's mouth: "Sometimes, even the devil is afraid of the thoughts within a f-----'s head.”

I do believe in the disinfecting properties of sunshine and hopefully the “Real Sports” segment offers that necessary light for people to wake up and shape up. In fact, it's almost a necessity. The time for willful ignorance is done. Giving people a pass for cavorting with an alleged murderer and never asking where the money came from? Done. Mixed martial arts may not be the best of all things, the worldliest of pursuits and passions, but it's our pursuit and passion. To turn a blind eye to Kadyrov's scheming is to concede the very essence and purpose of this sport to a vicious narcissist, who sees cagefighting as a way to subjugate marginalized persons and to glorify himself.

I'm not willing to hand over the keys of MMA to a hateful coward that can't even keep tabs on his own damn cat. You shouldn't be, either.

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