Apparently, Nazi vs. Jew is now Entertainment

By Howie Silbiger

You would think you were in Germany in the 1930s, but nope, America, 2026.

Last week, at the Kia Center in Orlando, Florida a man unfurled a giant Nazi flag during a boxing match, several people in the crowd gave Nazi salutes and security eventually stepped in and removed the flag. The video of the event has been making the rounds on social media, mostly because seeing a giant swastika flying inside the home of the Orlando Magic is not something you see every day.

The event was Duel Arena 1, a new combat sports promotion connected to the online crypto casino Duel.com. One of the main fights was between Ben “King” Azoulay, who is Jewish and openly pro-Israel, and Paul Miller, better known online as GypsyCrusader. Miller has been identified as a white supremacist by the Anti-Defamation League and has spent years producing racist and anti-Jewish content online. He has appeared wearing Nazi symbols, has SS imagery tattooed on his body and federal prosecutors previously described him as calling for a race based civil war. In 2021, he was arrested on federal firearms charges and eventually sentenced to 41 months in prison.

Miller’s background wasn’t exactly a secret, and it certainly wasn’t unknown to Azoulay. On June 19, more than two months before the fight, Azoulay announced that he had signed the contract and described Miller as one of the biggest Nazis on the internet. He said he was fighting for the Jewish people and referenced the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Duel then spent the summer promoting the matchup, which was eventually made the co-main event, and somewhere along the way, Jew versus Nazi became fight promotion.

Duel also apparently knew Miller from before. Miller had promoted a personal Duel.com referral link and appeared dealing blackjack on the company’s online casino. Earlier this year, during an interview with former MMA fighter Jake Shields, Miller said Duel and CSGOEmpire had approached him while he was having financial problems and offered to support him. He said he told them he wasn’t going to change his online content and, according to Miller, they told him to continue doing what he was doing. By August, he was fighting for their new promotion.

The matchup itself was odd. Miller weighed in at 218 pounds, Azoulay at 185.2, a difference of almost 33 pounds. Miller also had previous fighting experience and had already competed in Florida earlier this year. Azoulay still managed to go the full three rounds and one judge scored the fight for him, but the other two gave all three rounds to Miller, who won by split decision.

After the decision, Miller is seen on the video giving several Nazi salutes and members of the audience are seen responding with Nazi salutes of their own. The swastika flag was unfurled in the crowd, security eventually removed it and Miller later got hold of a microphone and called Azoulay a “Jew prick.” Several fights also broke out in the crowd, including one involving former UFC fighter Sedriques Dumas and a spectator dressed as the Joker.

The Kia Center has fairly extensive security policies. Flags and banners are restricted in size, bags are restricted, spectators are screened and political or derogatory signs can be prohibited. Somehow a very large Nazi flag got past all of that.

Orlando Venues, which operates the city owned arena, condemned the incident and said staff removed the flag when they became aware of it. The city has also explained that as the operator of a public venue it is restricted by the First Amendment and cannot simply refuse access because of someone’s ideology. That explains why the City of Orlando may not have been able to stop the event from renting the arena. Duel, however, picked the fighters.

After the event, commentator Wade Plemons said he was embarrassed to have worked it, called it the worst show he had ever been involved with and said he would never work for Duel Arena again. Duel responded by describing its approach to the event as “1st amendment absolutism.”

Duel’s verified social media account also reportedly referred to Patrick Clark Jr., a Black former WWE wrestler who fought on the card, as a “chimp” and an “actual monkey” after Clark was disqualified. The posts were later removed.

By then, the Florida Athletic Commission had another mess to deal with. The commission’s official results list ten fights from Duel Arena 1, although eleven appear to have taken place. The extra fight involved a costumed character called FreakBob fighting Daniel Cao, with internet personality Clavicular acting as referee. The fight isn’t listed on the official results and Clavicular doesn’t appear among the officials assigned to the event.

State Representative Anna Eskamani has since asked the Florida Athletic Commission to revoke the promoter’s licence and investigate what happened. Her letter raises the unlisted fight, questions about the referee and several other possible violations, including another advertised matchup involving a reported 112-pound weight difference. She has requested the event permit, approved fight card, licences, medical documentation, contracts and communications between the commission and promoter.

Miller is now listed as indefinitely suspended by Florida, although the commission hasn’t said why. There is no indication that the suspension is connected to the Nazi salutes or his comments after the fight, and it could simply be medical.

Azoulay isn’t someone I would normally be rushing to defend either. He was convicted in California in 2011 in connection with the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl, a history that resurfaced earlier this year when he was invited to speak to a Jewish student group in Beverly Hills. The school district later apologized.

Miller had spent years publicly identifying himself with white supremacy and Nazi imagery, had an existing relationship with Duel and was matched against a Jewish fighter who spent more than two months openly promoting the fight as Jew versus Nazi. Duel put the fight near the top of the card and promoted it.

Then Miller won and out came the Nazi salutes, and somebody pulled out a swastika.

It’s unfortunate that in 2026, none of this terribly surprises me. In fact, in today’s climate, sadly, I’m surprised anyone is.