“Violence in all forms is unacceptable,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro during his keynote address on political violence in America at the 2025 Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh.
Read Shapiro’s inspirational quote again.
“Violence in all forms is unacceptable.”
Such powerful words to live by from a Democratic sharpie campaigning with all his might for his rumored bid to run as a candidate in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary should reassure us Shapiro is on the right side of might.
Yet Shapiro’s words reek of hypocrisy.
Violence in all forms is so unacceptable to Shapiro he stood by sheepishly as his Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, a personal Shapiro cabinet appointee, endorsed and encouraged the vicious, bloodthirsty exhibits of bare knuckle-dragging primitive violence that exploded at the savage February 7th gladiatorial spectacle billed as KnuckleMania VI held at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia.
Not only did violence erupt inside the fighting ring but violence exploded outside the ring as well.
“Alleged violence,” said Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission Executive Director Ed Kunkle when I reached him on the phone Monday, Feb. 9. Kunkle hung up on me before I finished asking detailed follow-up questions about the KnuckleMania VI bare knuckle butchery
Before further embarrassing himself and the call for peace in Pennsylvania, Kunkle needs to check with Philadelphia police.
“On February 7, 2026, at approximately 9:30 pm, officers assigned to the Xfinity Mobile Arena, located at 3601 South Broad Street, were notified by venue security of a fight occurring within the crowd,” according to a Feb. 10 email from the Philadelphia Police Department Office of Media Relations/Public Affairs.
“An officer responded to the location with a security staff member and observed multiple individuals actively fighting. Security personnel identified one individual who was to be ejected from the venue. While being escorted toward the exit, the individual stopped, refused to leave, and became increasingly aggressive.
“Despite multiple verbal commands to exit the venue, the individual charged toward the officer. The officer deployed his Taser, which was ineffective, and the individual continued to advance toward the officer and attempted to grab him.
“Additional officers began arriving, and the male fled the venue, exiting into the parking lot area and fleeing in an unknown direction.
“No arrest was made.”
Unconfirmed internet videos also highlight the arena mayhem Kunkle called “alleged violence.”
Despite Shapiro’s pious public statement opposing violence, why would the governor endorse state-sponsored bloodletting that endangers fans and fighters? Bare-knuckle carnage produces capital for Shapiro supporters to contribute to his gubernatorial re-election campaign and potential presidential bid. Electoral cash might also draw white male red meat voters to Pennsylvania’s most namby-pamby elected official who yearns to appeal to younger right-wing rednecks as well as “No Kings” pantywaist liberals.
Shapiro Press Secretary Rosie Lapowsky failed to respond to my questions about KnuckleMania VI so I don’t know if the governor attended the Feb. 7 fiasco his Department of State promoted through a fawning Feb. 5 press release.
“Considering KnuckleMania V exceeded high expectations, it’s an honor for SAC (state athletic commission) that the BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship) decided to bring its showcase event back to Philadelphia in 2026,” the press release said, quoting Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt, who attended last year’s event. “It was a boost to the local economy in 2025, and the same is expected this year as bare-knuckle fighting continues to draw larger audiences.”
Does Schmidt honestly believe the SAC’s partnership with BKFC is honorable public policy? When I asked Schmidt’s Office of Communications and Press Deputy Director Geoff Morrow when Schmidt would be available to answer my questions he responded in an email, “We’ve received your inquiries and will be in touch soon.”
Schmidt’s flunkies failed to be in touch at all.
I understand violence.
As a former bar bouncer, street fighter and international amateur boxer, I am ranked as a 4th degree aikijujutsu black belt who holds 2nd and 3rd degree black belts in two other martial arts as well as the traditional Japanese martial arts “Renshi” rank of “polished instructor.”
After graduating from the Pennsylvania State University in 1974 I also worked as a drug and alcohol counselor and part-time boxing instructor at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill (SCIC). A 1989 riot wracked that same prison where an inmate and sparring partner of mine serving a life sentence for the vicious murder and rape of a teenager had years earlier earned a night out to spar an exhibition with the late boxing legend Muhammed Ali.
Shapiro’s Secretary of Corrections Dr. Laurel R. Harry who got her start at SCIC recently refused to answer my detailed written questions about approving a former professional mixed martial artist cage fighter to regularly visit several state prisons to meet and talk as a role model with inmates.
Although state officials long ago stopped state prison boxing programs, this mixed martial artist motivational speaker who has not publicly renounced violence as a sport and means to make money is welcome to clear security and “inspire” countless inmates, many of whom are killers and suffer personality disorders that can quickly turn violent.
Although mixed martial arts also embraces raw, brutal and life-threatening violence, state-sponsored bare knuckle fighting wallows in a deeper bloody gutter. Where does Shapiro think societal violence, including the specter of political violence Shapiro stresses every chance he gets, is nurtured if not among proponents of violence-fueled events such as the barbaric KnuckleMania?
Is Shapiro’s supposedly heartfelt belief that “Violence in all forms is unacceptable” a purposeful lie? Is Shapiro so deviously cruel as to twist the moral code of non-violence he espouses and expects voters to accept and practice?
Ali floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee.
But when it comes to phony Pennsylvania political integrity, knucklehead Shapiro stands alone as the greatest of all time.
