(See, this is what happens when you book a fighter without even googling his name first. / Photo via FightParrot)
Earlier this week, we passed along the news that World Series of Fighting had cut ties with Dustin Holyko — a prelim fighter who it had booked as a regional draw* for WSOF 11 — after his “SS”/”White Pride” tattoos and lengthy criminal past were brought to the promotion’s attention. Immediately afterwards, WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdelaziz admitted that the promotion doesn’t do background checks on its fighters, which, no shit dude. But allow me to re-post an excerpt from the WSOF’s official statement about the situation:
“Honestly, we were not aware of Dustin Holyko’s criminal record or any potentially offensive tattoos prior to him competing at WSOF 11. He was licensed by the Florida commission prior to the fight, and it was his third professional fight under their jurisdiction”
Here’s the thing, though — there is no record of Holyko actually being licensed to fight in Florida. Via Sherdog:
(See, this is what happens when you book a fighter without even googling his name first. / Photo via FightParrot)
Earlier this week, we passed along the news that World Series of Fighting had cut ties with Dustin Holyko — a prelim fighter who it had booked as a regional draw* for WSOF 11 — after his “SS”/”White Pride” tattoos and lengthy criminal past were brought to the promotion’s attention. Immediately afterwards, WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdelaziz admitted that the promotion doesn’t do background checks on its fighters, which, no shit dude. But allow me to re-post an excerpt from the WSOF’s official statement about the situation:
“Honestly, we were not aware of Dustin Holyko’s criminal record or any potentially offensive tattoos prior to him competing at WSOF 11. He was licensed by the Florida commission prior to the fight, and it was his third professional fight under their jurisdiction”
Here’s the thing, though — there is no record of Holyko actually being licensed to fight in Florida. Via Sherdog:
In a report by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, records show that Holyko held licenses to compete in the state of Florida in 2011 and 2013, but there is no record of the fighter submitting an application for a 2014 license. In addition, no background checks were conducted prior to the commission granting either license.
The report goes on to add that the Florida State Boxing Commission blames the mishap on an “administrative oversight.” Typically, licenses to fight can be submitted to the sanctioning body as late as the weigh-ins, which usually take place the day before the event…
Tajiana Ancora-Brown, the director of communications for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation explained in the article that she believes this “was an isolated event” and as a result a “serious” internal investigation is underway that will take “several days” to complete.
What a fiasco. Did anybody know who this guy was when he stepped into the cage on Saturday? (And is anybody buying the “isolated event” line? The Florida athletic commission isn’t exactly famous for having its shit together.) Then again, if the World Series of Fighting changes its moronic “no background check” policy in the wake of this scandal, it’ll all be worth it.
* Oh yeah, Holyko brought a bunch of his local Florida homeboys to watch him fight, who were apparently shouting racial slurs the whole time.
Holyko may not be actively a member of the neo-Nazi, white supremacist, white nationalist, etc. movements. But he sports tattoos that are directly, indisputably tied to those ideals and thus needs to own the consequences. If you’re “not any kind of Nazi,” it’s a good idea to not get Nazi insignia etched into your skin. And, if you realize that these aren’t the ideals that you want your name associated with, take the steps of getting cover-up work done.
Seriously, dude. Do it. At least for the sake of your tree-cutting business.
(If you can’t recite Philippians 4:13 without Googling it first, you’re not a real fan of MMA. / Photo via FightParrot)
Dustin Holyko is not a racist or a criminal. He’s just a regular guy with an “SS” lightning-bolt tattoo on his back, “WHITE PRIDE” inked on his biceps, and one of the longest rap sheets outside of Krazy Horse Bennett. That’s basically the story that Holyko is sticking to in the wake of his firing from World Series of Fighting.
In case you haven’t been following this story, here’s the basic outline: On Saturday, the World Series of Fighting 11 NBC broadcast included a prelim bout between local Florida fighter Dustin Holyko and Neiman Gracie; Holyko lost by second-round submission. After noticing his unfortunate tattoos, BloodyElbow’s Brent Brookhouse did some digging and learned that Holyko had been arrested for everything from domestic battery (three times!) to animal cruelty, and is currently on probation for an “escape” charge in 2012, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Apparently, World Series of Fighting knew none of this before they booked Holyko, who was hired sight-unseen, without any sort of background check. After the controversy went public, WSOF immediately cut ties with the fighter, and released the following statement to Sherdog:
“Honestly, we were not aware of Dustin Holyko’s criminal record or any potentially offensive tattoos prior to him competing at WSOF 11. He was licensed by the Florida commission prior to the fight, and it was his third professional fight under their jurisdiction. That said, with the information that has since come to light, we immediately elected to terminate our relationship with Mr. Holyko.”
Sherdog adds that Holyko had been charged with 16 criminal offenses in total, according to public records, and that he’d been arrested as recently as April 23rd due to a probation violation. But of course, none of those arrests are Holyko’s fault — and neither are the offensive tattoos. Here are some quotes from a new MMAJunkie interview with Holyko, which paints the fighter as a standup guy who you’d be happy to bring home to mom…
(If you can’t recite Philippians 4:13 without Googling it first, you’re not a real fan of MMA. / Photo via FightParrot)
Dustin Holyko is not a racist or a criminal. He’s just a regular guy with an “SS” lightning-bolt tattoo on his back, “WHITE PRIDE” inked on his biceps, and one of the longest rap sheets outside of Krazy Horse Bennett. That’s basically the story that Holyko is sticking to in the wake of his firing from World Series of Fighting.
In case you haven’t been following this story, here’s the basic outline: On Saturday, the World Series of Fighting 11 NBC broadcast included a prelim bout between local Florida fighter Dustin Holyko and Neiman Gracie; Holyko lost by second-round submission. After noticing his unfortunate tattoos, BloodyElbow’s Brent Brookhouse did some digging and learned that Holyko had been arrested for everything from domestic battery (three times!) to animal cruelty, and is currently on probation for an “escape” charge in 2012, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Apparently, World Series of Fighting knew none of this before they booked Holyko, who was hired sight-unseen, without any sort of background check. After the controversy went public, WSOF immediately cut ties with the fighter, and released the following statement to Sherdog:
“Honestly, we were not aware of Dustin Holyko’s criminal record or any potentially offensive tattoos prior to him competing at WSOF 11. He was licensed by the Florida commission prior to the fight, and it was his third professional fight under their jurisdiction. That said, with the information that has since come to light, we immediately elected to terminate our relationship with Mr. Holyko.”
Sherdog adds that Holyko had been charged with 16 criminal offenses in total, according to public records, and that he’d been arrested as recently as April 23rd due to a probation violation. But of course, none of those arrests are Holyko’s fault — and neither are the offensive tattoos. Here are some quotes from a new MMAJunkie interview with Holyko, which paints the fighter as a standup guy who you’d be happy to bring home to mom…
On his tattoos: “When I was 18, I went to prison, and I got white pride tattooed on my arms because prison is pretty racially separated. I am proud of my race, but I’m not racist or any kind of Nazi. One of my trainers, Mike Vasquez, he’s Puerto Rican and Spanish, and he’s like a dad to me. A lot of my training partners and friends are from different races. I have not a racist bone in my body at all.”
On one of his domestic battery charges, which resulted from a fight between an ex and a recent girlfriend: “The cops came, and somehow, I ended up going to jail for it. I never laid a finger on anybody, and that’s where the whole domestic thing comes from.”
On the animal cruelty charge, which resulted from Holyko punching a neighbor for hurting his pitbull, while his pitbull and the neighbor’s pitbull were fighting, or something like that?: “We got in a big fight, (and other neighbors from the same house) actually jumped me and beat me up pretty good. That night, I get charged with animal cruelty, and I got three battery charges. In the process of everything going, the girl that I was with got hit; she was trying to break everything up. Never once told the cops, ‘He hit me.’ She didn’t know how she got hit; somehow she got elbowed trying to break up the fight and get everybody off of me. And they charged me with domestic violence. All the charges got dropped, too.”
On the “escape” charge, which he caught for walking away from a police car in handcuffs following a drunken brawl in Daytona: “I was trying to be funny,” he said. “There was some chicks there, and a couple of my buddies. They sat us on the curb when they were doing their reports, and they weren’t paying attention. So (my friends) were like, ‘C’mon.’ It was kind of a joke. I got out, walked away, and I tried to hang out in the clubs with handcuffs on; we were all laughing. Next thing I know, the cops catch up to me, slam me on the ground and bring me back. They charged me with a misdemeanor, but the state attorney got a hold of it and jacked it up to a second-degree escape charges, which I could have done 15 years over that.”
On his wild past: “I’d like to sit here and make excuses here and there, but I did what I did. I made a lot of mistakes. I was a dumb kid. Until a few years ago, I turned my life around. I’m still not perfect. I’m sure everybody out there has probably has drank a little too much and done something stupid. The ones that don’t change and keep doing it, those are the ones that are just dumb. I changed my life around.”
On his fighting future: “I make plenty of money*. I’m cool with it or without it. I’d love to have the opportunity, but if not, I’m still going to do me.”
* Holyko runs a successful tree-cutting business, by the way. “If you saw my house, you’d think I’m a lawyer,” he said. “I work really hard.”
And finally, here’s WSOF matchmaker Ali Abdelaziz, trying to shift some of the blame on BloodyElbow:
“We don’t do background checks on people. But if something comes up, and it’s something we need to know about, I believe us and the media are all part of the team. If the guy who wrote the story knew about the information, he should have told us before the fight. I know it’s not his job, but to protect our sport and grow, if anybody has information about this kind of behavior, they should let us know. We don’t tolerate this; we had no idea this kid had this behavior or a tattoo or an affiliation, but he will never fight for the WSOF again. It’s embarrassing, and that will never happen again.”
