Normal people don’t strip to their shorts, step into a fenced enclosure, and fight another highly skilled person until one taps, naps, or snaps. Russian fighters are particularly noted for their calmness under pressure and bravery, and are often admiringly referred to as “Crazy Russians.”
But in a field very nearly defined by crazy, one man stands out.
Andrei Arlovski rose to the UFC heavyweight championship, but in April 9, 1999 he lost his very first fight, to Viacheslav Valerievich Datsik. “The Ginger Tarzan” is the craziest man in MMA. He is, unfortunately, actually crazy.
You can tell a person’s character from his performance in a fight. You can see their heart, and their hopes, and everything they want to be. And as you can see below, if they are crazy, well, you can see that too.
Datsik’s behavior in the ring and cage was so unbalanced it was uncomfortable. It didn’t take Nostradamus to see this was not going to end well.
Around 2007, Datsik started robbing cell phone stores at gunpoint.
Then he became a neo Nazi, holding obsessive antisemitic and anti-Christian views, while exalting Slavic paganism. He believed Jesus Christ worked for the Israeli secret service, and that he himself was the son of the Slavic god Perun.
He was arrested for the robberies, but found to suffer from schizophrenia and avoided criminal charges. He was sentenced toa high-security mental institution for therapy, but was inexplicably transferred to a low-security psychiatric clinic. That did not end well.
In 2010, Datsik tore the hospital fence with his bare hands, and fled to Norway to seek asylum, armed. He was detained, sentenced to eight months in jail for violating Norwegian weapons law, denied his application for asylum, and was sent out of the country back to Russia, where he was imprisoned.
Then word came on the Russian social network page kontakte, that he was killed in prison in a brawl, and that it was confirmed by his mother.
Like previous rumors that Datsik was dead, it was false.
Reporting via gazeta.ru (original Russian), Alexander Zubov, Head of Press Service of the Federal Penitentiary Service management for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, said “This is fictional. Who profits, I cannot say. Datsik is healthy, eating, has recently been out for a walk.”
Mental illness exacts a terrible toll, but he is said to be pleasant in person, if, obviously, troubled. Datsik remains imprisoned, which seems like the best thing for all parties involved.
