Gerard Gordoue(SP?), The Nazi?

[Tonuzaba]

Nazis used several types of swastika, including but not limited to angled variations.
Whatever his reasons for putting it on, if he really claims to be Jewish, I don't understand it... Not that it would be any of my business, but the Nazis really did ruin the swastika for all of us...

[slideyfoot]

I can easily get screen caps of this, and should be able to whip up a gif to show the salute (though I'm using that Animator9 program, so will have to see if it gets the motion correctly). Training finishes late tonight, but its a Bank Holiday tomorrow and I've got nothing better to do. :icon_wink

From what I remember of Clyde Gentry in No Holds Barred, as has been mentioned, Gordeau said that he was Jewish and he'd lost all his family in WWII. It was also described as a savate salute, though Gentry noted that Gordeau looked like a 'Neo-Nazi poster boy', given his build and blonde hair. To give that information a reference, its on page 48 of Gentry's book (the UK paperback edition). Gentry also notes Gordeau had been Dutch Karate Champion from 1978 to 1985, European Savate Champion from 1988 to 1991 and a Savate World Champion in 1992. So presumably he did have plenty of savate experience, or at the very least was familiar with the sport and its traditions (like the salute, if that is indeed from savate).

[Cuchulain]

The salute is definately a savate salute (also in fencing i believe) and he was listed in the UFC as a savatuer and not a karate-ka, so the salute wasnt out of place.

As for the swastika tattoo, well thats a bit more suspect :s

[schuyler]

He was originally a kyokushin fighter. In fact, the belt he's wearing in the picture posted earlier is Kyokushin. I also read on some other forum that he has the kyokushin kanku symbol tattooed on his left arm.

[Epicurus]

The swastika is pretty common worldwide, and Buddhism uses it a lot. It's a dynamic, symmetrical symbol that combines elements of rectangles, squares, line, right angles and a suggestion of infinity and rotation, which is why the Nazis thought it was so neato.
They kind of ruined it for the rest of us, but you look petty if you complain about it.

Yeah, the Nazi movement really messed up a perfectly good symbol. Jerks.

And I seriously doubt Gerard Gordeau is a Nazi of any sort. Sounds to me like the kind of bullshit someone would make up based on either the presence of the swastika, or his funny wave, or his lack of hair, or his not being from the good ol'US AND A etc.

[Teh El Macho]

The guy is an ashole, but I seriously doubt he would be a nazi. That kind of PR bomb would have exploded a long, long, long time ago.

On another note, the hand-raised salute is pretty normal accross cultures. It's only in cultures more aware of nazi atrocities that people are conditioned to avoid using it and to see such practices with suspicion (with very good reasons).

Nazis not only fucked up the swastika; they also fucked up a pretty natural form of saying hi. Fuckers.

-- EDIT --

Saying that somebody is a nazi is a very serious accusation... from a moral point of view.

[SpringHeeledJack]

He may not be a Nazi, but he's an asshole and I can't stand him. He took Nakai's eye. Nazi or no, **** that douche.

[Tonuzaba]

For all of us who have no idea about Nakai's eye (OK, talking about myself) - where did Gordeau take it?

OK, OK, no need to answer, I googled it up...

[Neildo]

Yeah....if some guy fucked up my eye in a professional fight, ON PURPOSE, then yeah...he'd be having a meeting with myself and an insane optometrist in a dark alley somewhere.

[JP]

Its not a swastika, its a manji. Buddhist symbol.

Check it out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manji

But truthfully, you gotta wonder as a permanent symbol goes do you really want to be constantly explaining to hostile people "No, its not really a swastika."

That's more attention than I'd want to attract.