Karim Zidan delves into Denis Nikitin, the dangerous neo-Nazi attempting to revive his White Rex MMA lifestyle brand. “Our“Our work continues. Stay tuned.” These five words appeared in a March 3, 2021 post on a Telegram channel run by Denis Kapustin (aka Denis Nikitin), the neo-Nazi hooligan, MMA fighter, and entrepreneur who founded the infamous White Rex clothing brand and MMA promotion known for propagating neo-Nazi and white nationalist rhetoric. After years of relative silence regarding his defunct promotion, the post signalled White Rex’s potential revival. Over the past few months, Nikitin has used Telegram to help rejuvenate interest in his White Rex brand. He posted pictures of Caucasian women dressed in White Rex clothing—one wore a t-shirt sporting the “88” symbol which stands for “Heil Hitler”—as well as video montages of his old MMA events and Nazi celebrations, and an announcement confirming a new White Rex “summer collection”. While it remains unclear what the notorious organization is planning, Nikitin’s decision to pour renewed resources into his brand underscores his desire to further his extremist agenda. Given that Nikitin is considered one of the most dangerous neo-Nazis in Europe, as well as the godfather of Europe’s extreme-right MMA scene, his renewed interest in the sport is a cause for concern. (…) In 2008, Nikitin founded White Rex, his MMA lifestyle brand that combined MMA subculture with far-right political ideologies. The White Rex logo featured as stylized Black Sun Nazi symbol, while the company name, often written as WH|RX, stands for “White Heterosexual Reactionary Xenophobe”. The company produced shirts, hoodies, pants, sports gear, and other items branded with white nationalist and Nazi symbols, as well as slogans such as “Zero Tolerance,” “Angry Europeans,” and “White Rex Against Tolerance.” While White Rex operates under the guise of a clothing brand, Nikitin also uses his brand to organize MMA events that provided a safe haven for neo-Nazis to congregate. From 2011 to 2015, White Rex hosted multiple MMA shows, some of which featured several notable Russian fighters, including Bellator star Anastasia Yankova (Yankova has since denied sharing White Rex’s ideology). White Rex also hired former Bellator middleweight champion Alexander Shlemenko to train its fighters ahead of one of their shows in 2013. Anastasia Yankova dressed in White Rex gear Nikitin used White Rex to market his ideology to disenfranchised youth whom he viewed as the next generation of hooligans and fighters. White Rex used hyper-masculine men and women with blonde hair and blue eyes to strategically market their clothing brand to the young men who are inclined to join their cause. (…) In 2017, Nikitin joined forces with the far-right Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary regiment in Ukraine that eventually morphed into a political party. The group’s insignia features the Wolfsangel and the Black Sun, which are both neo-Nazi symbols adopted by many white supremacist groups around the world. The group is also known for organizing annual summer camps for children and teenagers to learn practical military tactics mixed with lectures on Ukrainian nationalism. Nikitin moved to Kyiv and served as the unofficial ambassador for their MMA events at the Reconquista Club, a restaurant turned fight club run by the Azov Battalion. He hosted several events there and brought in notorious neo-Nazis and white supremacists from around the world, including Robert Rundo, one of the founding members of the Rise Above Movement, a white supremacist, pro-Trump gang that considered itself the “premier MMA fight club of the alt-right.”.
via bloodyelbow: White Rex: How MMA’s most dangerous neo-Nazi is attempting to revive his lifestyle brand
