Russian MMA fighter turned white nationalist set to make boxing debut 

Vyacheslav Datsik is set to make his boxing debut following his latest stint in prison. 

Vyacheslav Datsik, a notorious Russian MMA fighter turned white nationalist, is set to make his boxing debut following his latest stint in prison.

Datsik, best known for his KO victory against former UFC champion Andrei Arlovski, will take part in a boxing exhibition next February, according to the Russian Boxing Federation. The event is expected to feature a strange collection of characters, including strongman Mikhail Koklyaev, Youtuber Artyom Tarasov, and sambo wrestler Maxim Novosyolov, all of whom will compete in boxing matches.

The decision to include Datsik in the event is questionable given his criminal history. The former MMA fighter’s crimes include assault, robbery, murder threats, raiding brothels to humiliate sex workers, and escaping from a psychiatric unit.

In 2016, Datsik declared a “war on prostitutes” and broke into a brothel, where he assaulted the sex workers and forced them to walk naked through the streets of St Petersburg. Datsik filmed the entire incident, entering each of the private rooms, attacking the sex workers and tearing off blankets they used to protect their identities. He chased one into the bathroom and cornered her in the shower. He punched her repeatedly before stripping her of her clothes and sending her to the rest of her traumatized colleagues in the hallway.

”F***ing whores,” Datsik yelled into the camera during the raid. “They infect the last white men of our nation with HIV. The whole country will watch you, whores. As for the pimps, we will wring their necks. If you know where’s a whorehouse, call the police and tell the police to file them all.”

Datsik was later detained and sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison. His raid on the brothel took place three months after he was released from prison in March 2016. The former MMA fighter was initially detained in 2007 over a series of armed robberies of phone shops in St. Petersburg. Following an examination of his mental health due to his proclamations that he was the son of a Slavic pagan god, it was deemed that Datsik was living with a mental illness and was subsequently not imprisoned.

Eventually, the former fighter was transferred to a psychiatric clinic, where he escaped in 2010 by tearing a hole in the fence. Datsik fled to Norway, where he illegally crossed the border and handed himself in to the authorities for political asylum. He was eventually jailed again for his relations to white nationalists, and was extradited back to Russia in 2011 to serve the remainder of his sentence.

After serving his sentence following the brothel raid, Datsik was released in 2019 but was arrested once again for attempting to illegally cross the Russian-Estonian border along the Narva River. He was released in November 2020 following an 11-month jail sentence.

Datsik was also a member of the banned nationalist Russian party, Slavic Union, helping contribute to the party’s popularity. He has regularly made comments espousing white supremacy and has worn Nazi symbolsin the past.

As for Datsik’s imminent boxing debut, his opponent is yet to be determined.