Video Shows Police Officer Slamming Fan at UFC Edmonton
Footage circulating online shows an officer lifting and slamming a spectator during a crowd altercation at Rogers Place.
The action at UFC Edmonton was not limited to the octagon. Video circulating on social media shows a police officer slamming a spectator to the ground during the UFC Fight Night event at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, on October 17.
The clip, shared by the combat sports account @HappyPunch on October 18, shows the officer lifting a man and driving him into the floor as police intervened in what appeared to be a crowd altercation. The man appears to lose consciousness after the impact, per the video. The post described the incident as a police officer slam that "KO'd a fan fighting in the crowd."
The event itself was one of the more action-packed fight nights in recent memory. Every bout on the UFC Edmonton card except the co-main event ended in a finish, headlined by Mike Malott's devastating knee knockout of Joaquin Buckley in the main event. The undercard delivered four Performance of the Night bonuses worth $100,000 each.
No official statements have been released by the Edmonton Police Service, the UFC, or Rogers Place regarding the incident. The identity of the officer and the spectator have not been publicly reported, and it is unclear whether any charges have been filed or injuries sustained beyond what the video appears to show.
The footage has drawn significant attention online, with fight fans noting the irony of one of the night's most emphatic slams happening in the stands instead of the cage.
I have been going to fights in Vegas for years and you see crowd drama every now and then. Someone gets too drunk, someone talks too much trash, security gets involved. It happens. But this is something else.
I am not going to pretend I know all the details because we do not have a statement from anyone involved. What I can see in the video is a police officer picking up a fan and apparently slamming him unconscious on the arena floor. That is a level of force that is going to get attention, and it should.
If the guy was fighting in the crowd and being a danger to other fans, security had to step in. That is part of the job. But there is a wide gap between restraining someone and putting them to sleep on concrete. The UFC already deals with enough perception issues without fans getting body-slammed by cops during the show.
I would not be surprised if this leads to some kind of review. Edmonton Police should address the video, because it is not going away anytime soon.
KEEP TALKING FIGHTS.
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