Last week, Rizin released a statement addressing a fan who went by “Rizin Daisuki” (I love Rizin) in which they addressed rising concerns that RD, as he has been called on social media, was faking his illness. The statement confirmed that RD does not have cancer, like he had claimed, and that he will be returning all of the goods he has received from Rizin and fighters.
RD emerged around July 2019 by creating a social media presence on Twitter. He created his main account, where the account centered around his alleged terminal illness and his love of Rizin and certain fighters. It is alleged that he also had 20-30 others accounts that he would use to like, retweet, and tweet about his main account. By being active on social media and using his proxy accounts to help boost his reach, RD came to the attention of fighters and Rizin. He was received positively. Rizin sold T-shirts to raise money for cancer research centered around RD and fighters started to send him goods, cards, and messages of support. However, with the increased attention came increased scrutiny. People started to doubt whether RD was actually sick. People noticed that at an earlier event he walked onto stage and appeared to be healthy, people noticed that despite being in the middle of chemotherapy, RD had not lost any hair, people noticed that he was using stock photos of nurses and hospitals on social media, people noticed that his statements about his illness and treatment didn’t add up. In addition, it started to come to light that RD was aggressively messaging fighters asking for goods. In one example, he messaged a fighter asking for fight worn goods. The fighter didn’t respond and blocked RD. RD then used his other accounts to message the fighter and accuse the fighter of being rude to people with cancer and threatened to tell people that the fighter ignored a person dying of cancer. As a result, people started to question him. RD was not able to answer their questions and as a result, made his main Twitter account private. After attempting to defend himself, he then deleted his main account. However, people soon found out his real identity and his line of work.
This led to his wife contacting Rizin and the release of the before mentioned press release. However, while the press release stated that RD doesn’t have cancer, it does state that he is disabled and suffers from psychological issues. Some feel that these sentiments are not genuine. It was uncovered that RD owns several restaurants and has been seen walking around Rizin events in the past. This seems to go against his wife’s statement that he is bed bound. The story is still developing and it will be interesting to see what other details emerge.
Unfortunately, the story of RD is not an isolated incident. When I first read the allegations that RD was lying, it reminded me of an incident involving Invicta FC and a number of female fighters back in 2014. At that time, a man from Virginia emerged claiming to have terminal cancer. He would tweet seemingly supportive messages to fighters with hashtags pointing out his battle with cancer. Throughout his time on social media, he started to receive goods from fighters and was the beneficiary of several fundraising campaigns. A fundraiser was held that ultimately sent him to a UFC event and another fundraiser was held to send him to and Invicta FC event. Luckily his deceit was figured out before and the money was donated to a sick child.
The Invicta FC fan and RD followed a similar path with their deceit. They both alleged they had terminal cancer, made it a focal part of their social media presence. Then they both started sending supportive messages to fighters and promotions. They both used stock photos to show pictures of hospitals, their nurses, and support their claim. They both started to receive goods from fighters. However, people eventually started to question whether both were actually sick. The posts about their illnesses and medical treatment didn’t add up, people discovered they were using stock photos, and they were not able to show proof of their illnesses. In the case of the Invicta fan, research online revealed that he had been the beneficiary of fundraising campaigns going back to the early 2000’s as well as his wife.
The only question that remains is what will happen to RD? If we look to the Invicta fan we can perhaps see what will happen. After most people were convinced that the Invicta fan was lying, he disappeared. However, he would periodically re-emerge using different spellings of his name or different accounts. There are even posts about him using a sick child to get goods for himself. In the case of RD, he has momentarily deleted his main twitter account, but he has not disappeared. It is alleged that during the Rizin 22 and 23 livestream he spent roughly $10,000 buying raffle tickets in order to win signed goods. If that is a sign of things to come, unless Rizin does something, it appears that RD will continue to be an active fan of the promotion.
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