MMA figures exposed at covert neo-Nazi event in Canada
I was interviewed as part of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) investigation into the fusion of mixed martial arts and extremist ideology in Canada.
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On Monday, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)—Canada’ national public broadcaster—published its latest investigation into the deepening ties between mixed martial arts and extremist ideology in the country.
The investigation centred on a secretive neo-Nazi conference that took place in Vancouver, British Columbia this past summer—an event that drew some of the most influential white supremacists in Canada, along with martial arts gym owners, coaches and trainers.
Organized by the Exiles of the Golden Age, a group that refers to itself as “Canada’s premier traditionalist even planners,” the gathering also included white supremacist nationalist group Second Sons Canada, a prominent example of the festering fascist fight club movement.
I was interviewed as part of the investigation, where I discussed how MMA appears to have become the “common ground” between the various extremist entities.
“This is the real-world proof that mixed martial arts really does serve as this common denominator amongst these various groups,” I said. “It suggests something far more sinister, that this is deeper and more widespread than we may have initially considered.”
Footage from the event was obtained by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), who sent a photographer to obtain images and videos of those who attended. Two of the featured speakers were Sweden’s white nationalist influencer Marcus Follin and neo-Nazi Paul Waggener, who co-founded the pagan and neo-fascist cult Wolves of Vinland.
Waggner owns a jiu-jitsu gym and founded Operation Werewolf, a fitness and martial arts lifestyle brand named after the Nazi wartime plan to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines.
Waggner’s cult has established affiliations with a wide range of gyms, including the Wolf Brigade gym that, at one point, even had a partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Products such as Wolf Brigade’s steel maces were acquired by the UFC’s director of strength and conditioning at the performance institute and branded with the UFC’s logo. Wolf Brigade claimed the partnership was terminated after anti-fascists exposed the gym’s fascist ties.
Beyond the headline speakers, the investigation revealed the concerning links between local gym owners and martial arts coaches to the extremist movement. One of the attendees was a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor who used to be an assistant children’s coach. Others were members of the Vinland Hammerskins (VHS), the Canadian branch of an international white supremacist gang responsible for a number of terrorist attacks and hate crimes, including a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in the U.S..
Hammerskins were also responsible for the first wave of active clubs in Canada, using the guise of combat sports training as a means to recruit gullible young men to their violent cause.
Sports Politika readers will be familiar with active clubs, which I’ve reported on extensively here and here. It is a decentralized network of white nationalists and neo-Nazis has been spreading over the past few years. The activities of these groups range from martial arts training to public protests and vandalism campaigns.
As of January 2025, Sports Politika has found more than 125 cells spread across the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. The Global Project Against Hate puts it closer to 187.
Active clubs are present in at least 35 U.S. states and 10 European countries, including Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Canada has emerged as a hotbed for some of the most notorious active clubs, with groups emerging in at least five provinces. Some Canadian active clubs welcomed members of the Atomwaffen Division, allowing the terrorist group to organize under a different name. The groups have been involved in political intimidation and violence, both in the United States and abroad.
Active Clubs were founded by American neo-Nazi Robert Rundo as a decentralized network of small, localized cells—an architecture he believed would frustrate media scrutiny and law-enforcement pressure. It was a lesson drawn from the collapse of his earlier organization, the Rise Above Movement. “Even if the system and their dogs manage to put out one fire, it will lead to minimal results,” he wrote on the Active Club Telegram channel in 2020.
Yet despite Rundo’s warnings, many of these groups could not resist convening in public displays of force. Those gatherings helped trigger the very investigation they hoped to avoid and exposed far more participants than a dispersed structure ever would have.
As word spread about a CBC investigation ahead of publication, Waggner took to Telegram to share some words of wisdom with those “currently undergoing the initiation of getting doxed and harassed by antifa and media in Canada and elsewhere.”
“Fortitude. Discretion. Sovereignty,” he wrote. “No words for rats and snakes.”
In the end, the fascists forgot the first rule of fight club: don’t talk about fight club.
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To think Bob Arum in that interview with Ariel year ago was right after all these years. That and the people who scoff that the UFC and MMA isn’t right leaning are wrong. Thanks Karim for bringing this to the forefront.
Great stuff, as always