UFC Anarchist, Jeff Monson

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is one of those two types of often-brutal man-to-man combat competitions you may have seen on tv - PRIDE being the other. Whatever you think of this style of fighting (I happen to dig it, though I do feel guilty about that, and I'm not completely sure why), Jeff Monson is currently one of UFC's biggest stars. Monson is a self-declared anarchist:

He is, without a doubt, the toughest subscriber to In These Times. Standing 5’ 9” tall, weighing 240 pounds and sporting a shaved head, Jeff “The Snowman” Monson looks like a cartoon ready to pop, a compressed giant of crazy shoulders, massive biceps and meaty forearms.

When he sneers, people shudder. When he sweats, they turn away. When he’s angry, your best bet is to run.

He’s angry right now, even though his combat career in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)—an often-bloody tournament that combines martial arts disciplines like Brazilian Jujitsu and Muay Thai Kickboxing—is taking off. In February’s pay-per-view event, Monson easily beat his opponent with a chokehold in the first round. If things keep going this way, he could have a title shot in the heavyweight division, against the explosive Andrei “The Pit Bull” Arlovski. So no, it’s not his future career prospects that have him pissed. It’s the state of the world.

“I’m not some sort of conspiracy theorist,” Monson says of his political leanings. “I’m not talking about how the government is trying to hide UFOs. I just want to do away with hierarchy. I’m saying that our economic system, capitalism, is structured so that it only benefits a small percentage of very wealthy people. When I was traveling in Brazil, they had us staying at a really posh hotel. Outside the hotel there was a mom sleeping on the sidewalk with her two kids. That’s when reality hits you. What did that woman ever do? Who did she ever hurt?”

That's a pretty damn powerful story, and it's a great way to explain anarchism in easy-to-understand language. The image of a mother and her two children sleeping on the sidewalk outside a fancy hotel should haunt us all.

Look at what some French folks did to embarrass their government into taking action. Good stuff.

...Jeff Monson to retire after recent loss?

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