The fight game is built on hype, showmanship, and even bad blood. But what happens when the violence spills out of its agreed boundaries? That’s the question swirling after Raja Jackson, son of UFC legend Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson, launched a shocking and seemingly unscripted assault inside a Los Angeles professional wrestling academy.

Fans were left stunned as the footage quickly spread across social media. And while reports have emerged that say the police are now involved, voices from the fight community are weighing in, including former UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley.

On the One Night With Steiny podcast on YouTube, O’Malley admitted he couldn’t stomach watching the viral clip in full. He confessed, “Dude, I didn’t watch it. After you sent me that, I kind of asked a couple of my buddies at the poker table… they’re like it was pretty brutal. Like he got slammed and he started just like busting him up with some right and left hands… I couldn’t watch it to be honest. I don’t like seeing that.”

He went further, questioning not only the severity of the attack but also its consequences. “Yeah, I don’t know what do you charge that dude with? Hopefully that dude’s okay,” O’Malley said about the victim, Stuart Smith, known as Syko Stu in the professional wrestling world.

‘Suga’ continued with, “I don’t know, I feel bad for him. He’s young, 20-year-old kid, live streaming, you know, probably making some decent money. He can’t hurt people like that.”

Smith’s story adds another layer to the tragedy. A U.S. military veteran, he turned to wrestling as an outlet to manage PTSD. KnokX Pro Wrestling Academy, where the incident took place, issued a strong condemnation, calling the assault “a selfish, irresponsible act of violence.” Their statement emphasized that in 17 years of operation, nothing of this nature had ever occurred.

But why did it unfold this way? Raja Jackson, who has just one professional MMA fight on record, a loss in 2023, was reportedly supposed to follow a scripted wrestling sequence. Instead, he slammed Smith and delivered more than 20 punches to an apparently unconscious opponent.

O’Malley wrestled with that very question on the podcast as he shared, “God, if you train, it’s like… I did see the guy hit him over the head with a can, but if the guy thought that was part of like, what the, I don’t know. Did the guy deserve it? Maybe just the slam. Maybe one juice to the lips, but the extra ones weren’t necessary.”

He then added a sharper critique of Raja Jackson’s intentions with “But also if it’s an event, and you’re supposed to slam him and supposed to move on to the next position and stuff, and he started beating the f— out of him, that’s like, there’s some issues there.”

As per a report by TMZ, the Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the incident, though details remain scarce. Raja Jackson reportedly fled the academy after the attack, leaving other wrestlers to break it up. For now, the MMA world is left to debate what exactly happened in that ring and why, as ‘Syko Stu’s brother has provided an update on his situation.

Sean O’Malley questions Raja Jackson’s “issues” as Syko Stu’s family provides an update on his situation

The fallout from the shocking attack has shifted focus to the health of independent wrestler Syko Stu, whose real name is Stuart Smith. His brother Andrew took to Facebook on August 24 to assure fans that while Stu remains in critical care, his condition has stabilized. “Thank you everyone for your prayers, concerns, and kind words for my brother Stu. Please continue to keep him in your prayers,” Andrew wrote in the emotional post.

The family has made it clear that their priority is Smith’s recovery. Andrew confirmed his brother is “currently stable but in critical care,” adding that they appreciate the wave of support pouring in from the wrestling community and beyond.

Still, he warned fans against falling for scams, clarifying that no official GoFundMe or donation page has been launched despite several links surfacing online at the time of writing. The roots of the altercation seem to trace back to a heated exchange caught on earlier footage of Raja Jackson’s livestream. Before the match began, Smith was seen hitting Jackson with a can, and that moment appears to have lit the fuse for the chaos that followed.

The LAPD’s investigation will eventually provide clarity, but for now, the spotlight stays on Stuart Smith’s recovery and the community rallying behind him. As Sean O’Malley pointed out, one slam might have been part of the show, but multiple unanswered punches crossed a line no script could justify.