‘Come fight me Zios’: This anti-Israel influencer challenged Zionists to fight. He got his wish

Ten days after publishing a video to his Instagram account with the challenge “come fight me Zios” in “Tel Aviv, occupied Palestine,” pro-Palestinian influencer Ido Amiaz, also known as “the Salukie,” found himself knocked down three times in a boxing match that ended in a technical knockout after around 40 seconds.

Amiaz, an Israeli-born anti-Zionist influencer who has built a following through videos documenting his activism in the West Bank and now describes himself as a journalist in Palestine, was fighting Israeli mixed martial artist Shimon Smotritsky.

Smotritsky previously posted a video accepting the fight on his Instagram account on August 9, one day after the anti-Zionist influencer issued the challenge.

In later comments to The Jerusalem Post, Smotritsky said that the minute he saw Amiaz's challenge, he knew "that's my opportunity to shut him up."

"This guy is always spreading lies about Israel, about IDF soldiers, about all the heroes that are protecting us. And he's saying things that are against my values, against the truth. So, I knew I needed to make him quiet and teach him a lesson."

In Amiaz's initial video in which he issued the challenge, he said that he had had the idea to fight for some time because he was getting daily threats to fight him in Israel.

Amiaz's challenge to Zionists: 'Meet here in Tel Aviv. I’m waiting'

“So, this is an open invitation. Write me a DM, and we meet here in Tel Aviv. I’m waiting. B***h,” he said.

In his response video, Smotritsky accepted the challenge, adding, “now let’s see if you will actually stand up behind your words and fight an Israeli, or you will act like a typical Palestinian troll: you'll talk s**t about Israelis and then when we respond, you will cry on social media and say that we are the bullies and the aggressors like you always do.”

Amiaz’s response followed the same day, mocking Smotritsky and speaking Hebrew in a Russian accent, saying, “I hear your accent, my dear. Definitely very indigenous to the region!”

He went on to complain that he had been planning on fighting “normal Zios,” rather than a professional fighter, but that “as per usual, you people don’t like to play fair,” noting that he had received direct messages from a number of Israeli MMA fighters accepting the challenge.

He added, though, that he would keep his word, despite a prediction that the fighters would “tear me a new a*****e.”

Videos published to his account over the following days addressed the fight in various ways. One showed him as he trained to box, another dismissed accusations that he would back out of the fight, and another jokingly asked his audience if they would donate for facial reconstruction surgery.

In another, after an Israeli man asked him on a train ride if he’s been training and if he had a message he was trying to send, Amiaz complained “I can’t even take the choo-choo these days without the Chosen Crew convening an impromptu extemporaneous pre-fight conference.”

Amiaz brought Amir Hetsroni, an Israeli anti-Zionist academic, with him to the fight.

Hetsroni is widely known in Israel as a provocateur, a description he has denied despite a public record of inflammatory statements and high-profile controversies.

After the third and final time Smotritsky knocked Amiaz down in the boxing match between the two, the referee stopped the fight, declaring it a technical knockout.

Speaking shortly thereafter, Smotritsky expressed his surprise that Amiaz showed up to the fight, adding that doing so had earned his respect.

“Everyone curses me and threatens me, saying they’re going to kill me. Saluki challenged a Zionist fighter, and he showed up. For that alone, I respect you. I don’t agree with your views at all, and I think you’re a troll, but at the end of the day, you wanted this, and you got it,” Smotritsky said.

“Next time someone wants to represent Palestinians and fight against a Zionist, I want a bigger challenge. So, Belal Muhammad, Adam Salah, any one of you p*****s that talks s**t about my country, come get it.”

In his later comments to the Post, Smotritsky said that his fight with Amiaz wasn't a challenge for him.

"It was easy work for me," he said. "I don't even consider it as a fight. And I hope I beat some Zionism into this guy."