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ESPN’s broadcast of UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal was one of the best-selling UFC pay-per-view events in history, but a report by Bloody Elbow’s Karim Zadan revealed the television giant might have inadvertently spread around the world as part of that telecast what “is widely accepted as an extremist Nazi symbol”.
Per that report, “The symbol is known as the Schwarze Sonne (Black Sun) — aka the sonnerad — and is synonymous with far-right groups that traffic in neo-Nazi ideologies.”
The symbol was worn by a UFC coach for a fight that was broadcast during the prelims of the card, and the symbol could be seen quite visibly during the telecast.
You can see the symbol as worn by the UFC coach at UFC 251: Usman vs. Masvidal in the zoomed-in screenshot below.
You can also see how it would have appeared to viewers at home in the following screenshot.
Both screenshots were captured by Bloody Elbow.
According to that report, the symbol shown in the pictures above could be seen during the UFC 251 prelims bout between Roman Bogatov and Leonardo Santos.
Bogatov’s coach, Aleksey Kiser, is the person to have appeared on the ESPN/ESPN+ broadcast wearing on his right elbow what the Bloody Elbow calls a “Nazi symbol”.
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UFC Coach Aleksey Kiser Denies Accusations That He’s A Nazi
In the report by Bloody Elbow, Zadan explains what the “Black Sun” symbol is, where it came from and why it’s considered an “extremist Nazi symbol”.
You can read through all of that in the report.
But Kiser denied to Zadan that he shared the same interpretation of the symbol.
“For you, it has one meaning, for me as a Slavic [person] another! Not a single colored person has been harmed by me. I have nothing to do with this. You overreact and look for a grain of discord where there is none,” Kiser said per Bloody Elbow.
The writer said he pushed Kiser on the meaning of the symbol but that the UFC coach wasn’t interested in having a debate about it.
“For you, this has one meaning, for me another,” Kiser said per Bloody Elbow. “Let us close this subject!?”
UFC Dealt With Similar Controversy Weeks Ago
UFC president Dana White and other officials also had to deal with a similar controversy right before the UFC 251 pay-per-view event when a recently signed fighter from Germany was pulled from an upcoming fight card after the company learned of that fighter’s past ties to Neo-Nazi groups.
According to MMA Fighting, light heavyweight prospect Timo Feucht was supposed to be making his promotional debut against Kenneth Bergh on the July 15 “Fight Island” card but had his UFC offer rescinded instead after those reports surfaced.
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