The parable of tortured youths finding refuge and purpose in combat sports is ever uplifting. There are countless examples of martial arts being the light at the end of the tunnel to the distressing familiarity of a toxic childhood.
Some would contradict this, calling it institutionalised violence. But to summarise a person’s life and experiences into an academic opinion is like the jar of ash that remains as a token of a human being.
It is said that fighters are born, not made. The converse is also believed by some. But nature versus nurture aside, a true fighter always knows where the cage ends and the real world begins.
In today’s non-stop world, it is all too common that we find individuals who are defined by their profession and not their passion. For a martial artist, this could prove malignant. All the fortitude ingrained by a lifetime of fighting can be undone in a second by human fragility.
Even the most virtuous of fighters can be caught unawares and fall prey to that which he sought to escape with the help of the martial arts. It is difficult to pinpoint why – the cost of years of round-the-clock physical purging? The weight of excelling at the top tiers of the sport? Genetic chinks, too small to notice, that with time, grew to fissures?
Or perhaps the disorientation that collapses like a wall when confronted by the reality of where one is compared to the soaring vision of their destination?
Whatever the reason, there’s a number of dreadful instances where mixed martial artists reacted to situations with violence. These are particularly alarming because a person studied in martial arts is prolifically more dangerous than one who is not, when enraged.
Mercifully, most of them didn’t end in devastating consequences. But brutality always begets ugliness, regardless of its scale. Here are ten awful moments when MMA fighters spun out of control and committed the most abhorrent acts:
#10 Vyacheslav Datsik
Datsik is a man out of time; he would have been more at home in the Turbulent Thirties as a sparkling member of the Nazi party. The Red-Haired Tarzan’s lone spark in MMA was his KO of future UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski.
His robbing of mobile phone stores at gunpoint were juvenile compared to what followed. In 2010, Datsik’s brazen anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity (he was firm that Jesus Christ is a Mossad agent) led doctors to conclude that he is schizophrenic and landed him in psychiatric confinement.
Two months later, Datsik escaped from the clinic by tearing the wire fence with his bare hands. He then illegally crossed into Norway, where he declared himself a racist and a “white warrior” before requesting political asylum. He was detained in Norway before being deported to mother Russia.
Nine years of incarceration did not soften Datsik; after his release, stories surfaced of his “raids” on brothels, during which he paraded prostitutes and customers naked through the streets.
#9 Hermes Franca
Hermes Franca was one of the most ferocious and imposing Lightweights of his day. With six ruthless finishes in as many fights, he was quickly snapped up by the UFC. And as with many before him, the ultimate proving ground revealed cracks in his game.
But Franca would learn from his mistakes and rebound by winning the WEC Lightweight belt. After two defences, Franca vacated the belt and re-entered the UFC. This second chapter was much richer, with Franca winning two Fight of the Night awards and challenging for the 155 lbs belt.
But with time against him, the 35-year-old Brazilian was released in 2009 and plied his trade in smaller promotions. Everything went downhill from there.
In 2011, Franca was arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a 14-year-old. He was imprisoned for 42 months and deported to Brazil, with a four and a half year probation that came with the sentence. Franca returned to fighting in 2014, primarily in Brazil and Russia.
#8 War Machine, (formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver)
To our young readers, if you want to know what not to do with your life, check out this guy’s Wikipedia page. War Machine arrived in the UFC with a bang, winning Fight of the Night and Knockout of the Night bonuses in his debut. That was the highest point of his MMA career.
Following his refusal of a fight and slandering the tragic death of former Middleweight Champion Evan Tanner, War Machine was released from the UFC. His rebound was short-lived, as his recently inked contract with Bellator was terminated after he denigrated Barack Obama on social media.
After a few adult films, a pocketful of assault and battery charges and a stint in jail, War Machine debuted successfully in Bellator. He would win his second fight but lose in the semifinal of the Welterweight bracket. Then the assault happened.
In August 2014, War Machine’s ex-girlfriend and adult film star Christy Mack suffered 18 fractures, missing teeth, broken ribs and a ruptured liver at his hands. He was arrested and awaits trial in prison. While incarcerated, War Machine attempted suicide but was saved and kept in solitary confinement. His hearing is scheduled for this month.
#7 Josh Grispi
When Josh Grispi began an MMA career, many hoped that it would be a productive channel for the violent nature that got him expelled from many schools. Those hopes weren’t entirely unfulfilled – Grispi beat all but one of his first fourteen opponents, including veterans Mark Hominick and the progenitor of the Lightweight division, Jens Pulver.
Grispi was one of the fighters the MMA world had its eyes on during the UFC-WEC amalgamation. “The Fluke” was on the cusp of glory, with a title shot against Jose Aldo looming. But an injury to Aldo scuttled the fight and in what many considered a perilous gamble, Grispi took on Dustin Poirier instead.
He lost the fight and his status as #1 contender was immediately clouded.
What followed was one of the most incendiary falls from grace in the history of MMA. Grispi lost all three of his ensuing fights and was shown the door. In 2014, Grispi successively outdid himself in criminality.
He was first arrested for improper storage of large firearms near a minor but was released after posting bail. A few days later, Grispi was arrested for what one police officer called “the worst case of domestic abuse he had ever seen”.
Grispi punched and kicked his wife into a bloody mess, before unleashing his pit bull on her. When the police searched his house, they found a marijuana nursery. In an appearance on Dr Phil that October, Grispi’s wife, Kaitlyn made a baffling u-turn reminiscent of “The Shining” when she said that their house was haunted and drove her husband to barbarity.
This makes us wonder if Grispi was the only one who needed to be locked up.
#6 Alexander Emelianenko
The apple fell very far from the tree in the case of the Emelianenko brothers. While the younger sibling was punted as being the more physically endowed of the two, he lacked the mental fortitude and ethics of his astronomical brother, Fedor.
The 6’4”, 250-lbs Russian had no problem scratching out second-tier fighters, but he withered in the highest echelons of MMA. Alexander had run afoul of the law a few times before his most heinous crime.
In 2015, Alexander Emelianenko was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for forcing his 27-year-old housekeeper to ingest illegal substances, withholding her passport and sexually abusing her.
Shockingly, he was released in 2016 after a mere 18 months behind bars; perhaps a machination of the unsettling partisanship that is showered on many Russian combat sports luminaries by the country’s power brokers? We may never know. But one thing is certain – the Grim Reaper is free and is on the lookout for his next opponent.
#5 Mike Whitehead
Well-rounded fighters were a scarce commodity during MMA in the noughties. “Iron” Mike Whitehead counted himself among those versatile few, though he never quite reached promised heights.
Whitehead entered season 2 of The Ultimate Fighter as the favourite but was edged out of contention by eventual victor Rashad Evans. Despite the loss, the bosses wanted to see more of him so Whitehead was given a second chance against Keith Jardine at UFC 57. The gun-shy Whitehead lost the fight via decision and was released.
He rebounded by winning his eighteen of his next twenty fights before the disturbing news of his assault surfaced. In 2012, Whitehead was convicted of attempting to sexually assault a female friend at his home in 2010. He invited her and another woman to a barbeque at his residence and offered them his room to spend the night, during the course of which the reprehensible act occurred.
Whitehead was released from prison in 2015, though he always carries the stain of being a sex offender. He has fought once since then, losing a UD to Brian Heden in a regional outfit.
#4 Jeremy Jackson
Former UFC Welterweight Jeremy Jackson shares more than just initials with his namesake, the former Baywatch star who played Mitch Buchanan. Both are guilty of shocking crimes – Jackson, the actor, of two individual instances of stabbing and Jackson, the fighter of sexual assault.
Jackson’s biggest claim to fame is of being one of only two fighters to have knocked out Nick Diaz. The bad boy from Stockton would avenge himself twice in later fights. Jackson was one of the contestants on season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter but was bounced from the show after leaving the house to meet a woman.
In 2011, Jackson pled guilty to robbing and raping his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
#3 Lee Murray
When a man like Dana White, who is no stranger to the mob, describes someone as a “scary son-of-a-bitch and I don’t mean fightwise”, one should take his word for it. If that isn’t enough, a reputation as one of the most brutal drug dealers in East London would definitely seal it.
But all that corroborated by petty theft and assault are dwarfed by his masterminding of the biggest cash theft in British history. On February 21st, 2006, Murray and his cohorts hijacked £53 million from a warehouse.
While most of the gang were tracked down, Murray and his childhood friend Paul Allen stole away to his father’s home country of Morocco.
Through his father’s ethnicity, Murray was considered a Moroccan national. The absence of an extradition agreement between Morocco and the UK allowed Murray and his partners the leeway for a celebrity’s lifestyle. Murray and Allen spent millions on opulent mansions and a princely lifestyle before they were arrested by a small army of police.
Two of the four, Gary Armitage and Mustafa Basar, were incarcerated in Morocco and released after minimal sentences. Paul Allen was extradited to the UK and served his sentence there before being released for good behaviour.
Murray’s situation was a little more complicated – his Moroccan lineage and possession of cocaine and marijuana ensured that he was jailed there. Britain’s attempts to acquire him in exchange for a terrorist did not materialise.
The man who lost to Anderson Silva in a bid for the Cage Rage Middleweight Championship, currently scratches off the days of his 25-year sentence in a Moroccan prison.
#2 Joe Son
The blooper reel that is Joe Son’s combat career takes a frightening turn outside the ring. Son lost all 5 of his fights – 4 in MMA and 1 in kickboxing – in the most red-faced manners. His UFC debut ended after Keith Hackney pounded his groin like a steak, he twice quit due to injuries and holds what is possibly the only submission loss due to “terror”.
That was the double-take inducing adjudication after Joe Moreira struck him and drew blood; the sight of which caused Son to surrender. Uncannily, Son played Random Task, a parody of James Bond villain Oddjob, in “Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery”.
That’s where the laughter dies. In 2008, while in custody for a probation violation, Son’s DNA was matched to a gang rape that was perpetrated in 1990. Son was sentenced to life in prison. Barely a month into his sentence, Son’s inhumanity sank deeper into itself when he beat his cell-mate to death. Son is in solitary confinement and has no chance of parole.
#1 Jarrod Wyatt
It seems disrespectful to the victim to call this the proverbial scene from a horror movie, but at its heart, that’s exactly what it is. In 2010, Jarrod Wyatt and sparring partner Taylor Powell were training after drinking tea made with magic mushrooms.
Another friend, Justin Davis, who was present during the consumption of the tea left because he found Wyatt’s behaviour worrying. When he returned, Wyatt was blanketed in blood, with Davis’ organs dotting him.
Wyatt had cut out Davis’ still-beating heart and burnt it, believing that his friend had been possessed by the Devil and that was the only way to banish it.
Wyatt was charged with first-degree murder and torture because Davis was alive when he had cut out his heart. His initial plea of insanity did not hold up in court and he later pled guilty. He was sentenced to 47 years in prison.
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