An organization of UFC fighters undercover with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro found itself in the climax after the attack on Congress this month.
On January 8, 2023, a sea of people dressed in the yellow and green symbolizing the Brazilian flag descended on Brasilia, the country’s capital, to demand that the army cancel the presidential election.
Within 4 hours, thousands of far-right supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the 3 branches of the country’s government (Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace) and wreaked havoc on iconic modernist architecture.
The chaotic scenes were reminiscent of the Jan. 6 attack on the U. S. Capitol. In the US, mobs fueled by false accusations of electoral fraud looted buildings, attacked police officers and chanted slogans in favor of Bolsonaro while the removal of newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was not easy. .
In addition to the rioters who invaded the country’s federal institutions, the combined martial arts fighters were among those who publicly celebrated Bolsonaro and the coup attempt, and one was joined by one who participated in last weekend’s pay-per-view exhibition in Brazil.
Deiveson Figueiredo, a former UFC champion who lost his flyweight name by TKO in UFC 283’s main joint event on Saturday, was among those calling for a military coup against Brazil’s elected government. A recent investigation by BloodyElbow. com found that Figueiredo had shared a series of pro-Bolsonaro posts on WhatsApp, adding a photo indicating it was time to “invade Brasilia. “
“Either a loose country remains, or we die for Brazil,” it reads.
A momentary message shared by Figueiredo encouraged rioters to “camp out Congress,” while a third showed Bolsonaro being greeted by army generals with a caption calling on the army to launch a coup against the incumbent government.
Figueiredo’s steadfastness for Brazil’s arguably former president is shared through a plethora of Brazilian athletes, adding local jiu-jitsu stars and UFC fighters. In recent years, the far-right populist has beaten UFC champions such as Anderson Silva, Rafael dos Anjos, Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Cris Cyborg and Fabricio Werdum. He was also educated through the Gracie family, a prominent extended martial arts family credited with creating Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Bolsonaro, who served as Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, rubbed shoulders with UFC fighters and even promoted some to vital political positions. UFC veteran and jiu-jitsu champion Renzo Gracie was named foreign tourism ambassador under Embratur, a branch of Brazil. The following month, Gracie posted a video threatening to suffocate French President Emmanuel Macron. Three years later, Gracie’s circle of relatives was embroiled in a scandal that would have seen them obtain government bills from a fund earmarked for Brazil’s poorest families during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the celebrities, Bolsonaro lost a runoff to former President Lula in October 2022. He fled Brazil days before his rival’s inauguration and landed in Orlando, Florida, where he stayed at a vacation home owned by former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. The former president would have been there during the riots of January 8.
Aldo then defended his resolve to welcome Bolsonaro into his home, saying it’s just a business opportunity.
“The country is divided. Everyone on the other side will criticize me,” Aldo said on the Flow podcast, one of Brazil’s most popular podcasts. “However, I wasn’t thinking about it. There is a clever and bad aspect to everything you do in your life. The street is still full of people now. I get so many messages from other people who need to stay home. I’m sorry, but some other people just think small. They don’t make business sense. “
The former UFC champion, who is also believed to be involved in a government scandal, is now placing a plaque in his home that reads: Brazil’s president stayed here.
Bolsonaro’s adoption of MMA is part of a current trend through right-wing politicians and authoritarian leaders to arm sports for political ends. in the UFC) publicly supported their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruthless dictator accused of countless human rights abuses during his tenure as head of the Russian republic of Chechnya, founded his own MMA wrestling club and now has several fighters affiliated with him participating in the UFC. Kadyrov, who has attended two UFC events in the past, is known for using his gym as a form of reputation cover-up and as a tool to divert attention from well-documented abuses such as enforced disappearances, torture and an ongoing purge of LGBTQ people in Chechnya.
Organizationally, the UFC has organized events in partnership with Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a country with a poor human rights record.
Meanwhile, the arguable UFC president, Dana White, has also spent the last few years selling off the former U. S. president. U. S. Donald Trump and providing him with an exclusive platform to defend his political ideology. leaders without worrying about the repercussions. It is therefore not unexpected that countless UFC fighters have publicly used their platforms to help Bolsonaro, as well as to inspire attacks on democratic institutions.
However, while the vast majority of Brazilian UFC fighters are overwhelmingly Bolsonaro, there are some exceptions.
Two years ago, UFC strawweight Virna Jandiroba used his post-fight victory speech to congratulate Brazil’s universal healthcare formula and attack Bolsonaro for his failed handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fighter also recently shared a heartwarming story about her grandfather, who served as Colonel Brasil’s infamous army dictatorship and was persecuted for opposing the regime. This party with fascism explained Jandiroba’s leftist worldview and tired her of populist figures like Bolsonaro.
“Bolsonaro offends me and my other friends on many levels,” Jandiroba said in a recent interview with Bloody Elbow. “It’s for me to love him. “