MMA coach charged with sexual exploitation of minor

A mixed martial arts coach from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia has been charged with two counts of sexually exploiting a minor during training sessions.…

By: Karim Zidan | 1 year ago
MMA coach charged with sexual exploitation of minor
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

A mixed martial arts coach from Pitt Meadows, British Columbia has been charged with two counts of sexually exploiting a minor during training sessions.

The charges were announced by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (PCMP), which began its investigation in October 2021 after receiving information that an MMA coach had allegedly sexually exploited a female youth during training sessions dating as far back to 2016.

The RCMP also collected witness statements which suggested that the accused was involved with other female gym members and that he also taught group self-defence classes throughout the Pitt Meadows community.

Following the investigation, the B.C. Prosecution Service approved the charges against 34-year-old Danyal Bahramfar (aka Daniel Golkar). A photo of the accused was released last week, which according to Corporal Julie Klaussner with the Ridge Meadows RCMP, was done in an “effort to locate further witnesses and individuals who may have information.”

Bahramfar was the head coach at Scorpion Combat Sports, an MMA gym in Pitt Meadow that was home to 17 competitive fighters, including Tristan Connelly, whom he cornered during the Canadian’s shocking upset against Michel Pereira when the UFC came to Vancouver in 2019. He also cornered Jeremy Kennedy during his upset win against Rony Jason at a UFC event in Brazil in 2017.

Bahramfar is still featured on the gym’s homepage but has been removed from the list of instructors.

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About the author
Karim Zidan
Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.

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