The Kia Center in Orlando is under fire for hosting a fight that inspired fans to bring out a Nazi flag and salutes. And of course a South Florida man is at the center of it all.
Photo by Joseph Hendrickson/AdobeStock
The fight description alone is an obvious powder keg for controversy: A fighter known for spouting antisemitic rhetoric and stockpiling weapons for a “race-based civil war” pitted against a Jewish influencer. In an apparent bid of support for the former (or at the very least an antisemitic insult to the latter), one fan felt emboldened to wave a Nazi flag at the Orlando fight on Saturday, causing several others to throw up “Heil Hitler” salutes.
And because South Florida is yet to see a controversy it didn’t want a piece of, there is, of course, a connection to this chaos.
Organizers booked Ben Azoulay (who is Jewish) to fight Paul Miller, known online as “Gypsy Crusader” and referred to by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a Neo-Nazi and white supremacist. South Florida residents may recognize him as the guy whose Fort Lauderdale home the FBI raided in 2021 following a federal indictment on weapons charges.
Miller gave a glimpse inside his mind in a 2020 video described by ADL. In it, he angrily blames Antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement for radicalizing him and costing him his job, saying, “After all of that, that is why I became so fucking radical. That is why I want these fucking (N-words), and these fucking Jews, and these fucking Communists to face the fucking wall. I’m done with them. I don’t want to talk any more. There is no more debate. Alright? There’s no more bullshit, yeah let’s talk it out, yeah let’s give them some rights. Fuck them. Fuck these (N-words). Fuck these Jews.”
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(About a year after Miller’s racist tirade, he pleaded guilty to federal gun charges in South Florida, and a judge sentenced him to 41 months in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.)
So, naturally, Miller was scheduled to fight against a Jewish man at the Kia Center on Saturday. Duel Arena, the event organizer, did not respond to New Times’ emailed request for comment.
The Nazi flag-bearer came out after Miller went into a rant against Azoulay and appeared to give a Nazi salute twice, according to reporting by The Washington Post. Upon seeing the flag, several men in the crowd joined in giving Nazi salutes, as seen in the video below.
Orlando Venues, which operates Kia Center, quickly issued a statement both condemning hate speech and saying the First Amendment prevents them from banning access to certain political ideologies.
“Orlando Venues and the City of Orlando unequivocally condemn all forms of hate speech, discrimination, antisemitism, racism, and any message that encourages hatred or violence against any person or group,” according to a statement posted to X. “To be clear: those views belong solely to the individuals who expressed them.”
The full statement can be read below.