Anyone who has spent any amount of time looking through comments on a post about MMA, jiu-jitsu, boxing, or any martial art has probably encountered a keyboard warrior. You know the type — he talks a big game, seems super confident that he knows what he’s talking about, but thankfully (for him) never has to prove himself outside of the internet world.

The minds behind the McDojoLife page on Facebook are basically specialists in calling these types of people out. They call themselves a “movement” and say they focus on bringing attention to “martial artists with shady business practices; martial artists that lie about their rank, fight record, or lineage; pedophiles who are still in business; and techniques that are horse s*** such as no-touch knockouts, mysticism, and things like that.” Yesterday, they were sent these screenshots from a public comment thread:

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It’s pretty standard fare for those of us (especially women) in the martial arts world. But rather than just letting this troll go on his merry way, McDojoLife decided to put their money where Zylinski’s mouth is. They put a public offer out for $1,000, plus paid flights and accommodation for any 160-lb woman to fly out to Gainesville, Florida to take on Zylinski in an MMA fight.

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“We decided to go all-out on this one because we have simply seen this crap way too much. We see a lot of ‘macho’ guys post and comment on our page all the time about what they can do,” said a representative (who wished to remain anonymous) for the McDojoLife page. “Finally we said, ‘Prove it.’”

It didn’t take long for Anna McCauley Dempster, an Oregon native with a 7-0 amateur MMA record, to reach out and set the date of the fight for January 6. “[It’s] pretty ballsy considering that is only like four weeks away. But she wanted a piece of this guy really bad. Her credentials are legit,” said McDojoLife.

Locals who know or know of Zylinski have chimed in on the thread, saying that he’s a part of the local comedy scene. One commenter described him as a “real edge-lord who got off on telling rape jokes and offending the audience.” Multiple locals also sent messages to McDojoLife to tell them more about McCauley Dempster’s future opponent. “From what we can tell, he has made quite a few enemies in town from his trolling online. We actually had a few people from Gainesville thank us for making this fight happen because he has tormented them,” said the page’s representative.

Although McDojoLife is happy to make this particular fight happen, they do still believe that the separation of weight classes and genders in combat sports is a good idea. “I do believe in the ‘any given Sunday’ rule as well though,” said the representative. “If a 110-lb man was to fight a 220-lb guy and they both have the same amount of time training, then the 110-lb guy will lose. That is the same for any gender though. Now if a 130-lb female who trains were to fight a 145-lb male who didn’t, then my money is on the woman all day.”

Even though this is just one fight, McDojoLife (and many of their followers, to be sure) see this as so much more than one internet troll having to step up to the plate and stand behind his words. “There are a lot of factors in a fight, and when you say a woman trained in martial arts cannot beat a man of equal size who doesn’t train, you are not only disrespecting women, but you are disrespecting martial arts.”

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For anyone concerned that Zylinski might not show up to the fight, McDojoLife has promised that McCauley Dempster will still get paid regardless of whether or not her opponent decides to fight her. They’ve also started a GoFundMe to finance the necessary costs for the match, and a percentage of the money raised will go to McCauley Dempster as a fight bonus. If Zylinski does show up, McDojoLife has said that they will be streaming the event live for anyone who can’t attend in person.



We’ll be posting updates about this event as we get them, but for now, mark your calendars for January 6 to watch Anna McCauley Dempster and Kristopher Zylinski square off in Gainesville, Florida.