A man in a black T-shirt raised a large red flag bearing a black-on-white swastika inside Orlando's city-owned Kia Center Saturday night, and arena staff had to physically confront him and escort him out of the crowd. The moment, captured on video during the Duel: Arena 1 mixed martial arts card, has since triggered a wave of condemnation, a public reckoning over how the flag got past security, and pointed questions about why the City of Orlando had promoted the event in the first place.
The flag appeared during the August 29 card at the Kia Center, previously known as Amway Center, as reported by Orlando Weekly. Kia Center staff confronted the man waving the flag and escorted him from the crowd, according to video footage reviewed by the outlet, though the identity of the man remains unclear. Orlando Venues, the city department that oversees the arena, has not explained how the banner made it past security screening.
Security Guard Steps In as Crowd Boos
Self-shot video posted by former WWE wrestler Patrick Clark Jr., known as Velveteen Dream, captured the flag going up in the stands just after he was disqualified in his undercard bout against podcast host Ryan Pownall, according to Wrestling Attitude. State Representative Anna Eskamani, who is campaigning to become Orlando's next mayor in 2028, publicly praised a woman security guard who immediately worked to rip down the flag while spectators booed. “We cannot normalize this. Ever.” Eskamani said, criticizing the display as unacceptable in Orlando.
Orlando Venues removed the flag once staff saw it on display, and a department spokesperson said the agency does not condone or approve of the messaging seen during Saturday's event. Still, the incident exposed a gap between the venue's stated rules and what actually happened inside. The Kia Center's guest policy bans signs containing derogatory comments or political statements, clothing featuring offensive language, and prop or toy weapons of any kind, and it only permits small clutch bags no larger than 4.5 by 6.5 by 1 inches — restrictions that raise the question of how a large flag entered the building undetected.
Fighter's Neo-Nazi Past Draws Scrutiny
The card, headlined by Mike Perry and Dillon Davis, also featured a kickboxing match between Israeli fighter Ben “King” Azoulay and Paul “Gypsy Crusader” Miller, a known far-right extremist associated with neo-Nazi imagery including swastikas. Miller defeated Azoulay by split decision, and the fight immediately sparked a violent post-fight crowd brawl in the stands that required security to separate attendees and former UFC fighter Sedriques Dumas, according to Sportskeeda.
Miller's background has drawn scrutiny well beyond Saturday's card. In March 2021, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force raided his Fort Lauderdale home, seizing an unregistered rifle and 850 rounds of ammunition, according to the Washington Post's earlier reporting. He was sentenced that year to 41 months in prison for illegal possession of firearms plus three years of supervised release, and he was released from custody in January 2023 after spending less than two years locked up, according to USA Today. Miller gained an online following by wearing Nazi armbands and calling for a race-based civil war on video streaming platforms.
Holocaust Center Demands Accountability From Organizers and City
The Holocaust Center of Florida issued a statement Monday condemning the display of the Nazi flag and Nazi salutes at the event, calling on organizers to take accountability, according to Bungalower. The center specifically questioned why the City of Orlando had promoted Duel: Arena 1 on its official Downtown Orlando portal despite Miller's documented history, noting the city's site had advised combat sports fans that “you don't want to miss this” ahead of the card.
A City of Orlando spokesperson responded that municipal venues are legally required, under federal, state and local First Amendment standards, to host events regardless of content or viewpoint so long as the event complies with applicable laws — a constraint Orlando Venues also cited, noting that laws and regulations restrict booking decisions based on an event's content. Orlando Weekly's reporting, credited to writer McKenna Schueler, notes Orlando Venues is required to operate its facilities in accordance with those same federal, state and local rules.
A Pattern Playing Out Statewide
The Kia Center incident lands amid a broader pattern of antisemitic displays across Florida. In September 2023, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested neo-Nazi demonstrator Jason Brown after he and affiliated members of the Order of the Black Sun hung swastika banners and racist messages over an Interstate 4 overpass in Orlando, as reported by The Guardian. That arrest came under House Bill 269, which the Florida Legislature enacted in April 2023 to create enhanced criminal penalties and hate-crime reclassifications for displaying unauthorized swastikas, projecting hate symbols onto structures, or distributing intimidating hate materials.
Neo-Nazi demonstrators have also waved Nazi flags outside Disney World in Orlando, and the numbers back up the sense of an escalating trend: reported anti-Jewish incidents in Florida more than doubled between 2020 and 2022, contributing to a record national total of 9,354 incidents in 2024, according to the Anti-Defamation League's Audit of Antisemitic Incidents cited by the Jewish Press. Florida consistently ranks among the top five states nationwide for such activity. Federal prosecutors in Orlando also arraigned a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen extradited from Norway in June 2026 on charges of transmitting bomb threats against Jewish community institutions across Middle Florida, underscoring ongoing security concerns for Jewish institutions in the region.
For now, exactly who raised the flag inside the Kia Center, and precisely how it slipped past the arena's own bag and signage restrictions, remains unanswered. Orlando Weekly has covered local news, food, nightlife and culture in the city since 1990, and its reporting notes that neither Orlando Venues nor event organizers have offered a fuller account of the security lapse.
