One MMA fighter will not be competing for an organization due to some controversial tattoos.
Radek Roušal was scheduled to make his pro debut for Oktagon, a Czech promotion. That plan has gone awry as promotional officials discovered that Rousal has a tattoo of Adolf Hitler on his right hand among other neo-nazi tattoos.
Oktagon’s head honcho, Ondřej Novotný, had the following to say during an interview with iDNES.cz.
“This doesn’t exist here, so you can come to us and look like this. We have it in the contract, we could fine him. Even on his chest (apparently the cap of an SS officer, the skull could also refer to the SS Skull Unit of the SS organization responsible for the administration of extermination camps). At all! He’s quite right about that. We didn’t study what it looked like, nor did the photographers and cameramen. Nobody has talked about it before … We didn’t know about it, certainly not.”
MMA promotion “Oktagon” have barred Radek Rousal from competing due to his visible neo-nazi tattoos.
Rousal was booked to fight as a last minute replacement before officials noticed the tattoos of an SS officer and Adolf Hitler.#VMTV #MMA #MMATwitter pic.twitter.com/XTI2yC78zk
— Violent Money TV (@ViolentMoneyTV) January 5, 2022
Released Fighter With Neo-Nazi Tattoos Responds
Radek Roušal spoke to Extra.cz to explain the tattoos and he said it simply boils down to poor life choices early on.
“I grew up in the troubled community of people that made this tattoo. At the time, I didn’t know what to do with life, I was young and this tattoo was stupid. Later, I started doing martial arts, which led me to a completely different life and worldview. I have more tattoos that I regret, I gradually tattoo them all. I also want to apologize with my statement.
“He explained it to me. I told him he was crazy. I’m not a tattoo expert, but how long can this take to tattoo? Two days? It’s nice that he basically distanced himself from it, I trust him and I’m able to understand everything, but not this and it can be done faster. Most importantly, it must be seen. This is not very visible yet. “
The MMA world has seen its share of incidents with fighters who have had neo-nazi ties. Back in 2020, the UFC released Timo Feucht after discovering his past incident involving the neo-nazi movement.
