3,000 attended Constantino’s free MMA event at Cool Arena

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

About 3,000 people attended the free ‘Cage Wars 69’ night of Mixed Martial Arts bouts and politics sponsored by Constantino for Congress Friday in Glens Falls, Cool Insuring Arena Director Jeff Mead tells The Chronicle.

The arena wasn’t filled as promised by Anthony Constantino, the Amsterdam entrepreneur and NY-21 Republican Congressional hopeful, but later on Facebook he called it “the largest amateur event in NYS history.”

Mr. Constantino’s business in Amsterdam is Sticker Mule, which makes custom stickers, labels and packaging.

He’s an ardent Donald Trump supporter who before the last election erected a giant Vote for Trump sign atop his factory visible from the New York Thruway.

He’s self-funded his Congressional campaign to the tune of $2.6-million.

Friday he entered the ring two fights in — striding across the floor to the song “We Are The World,” amid smoke, cameras and an entourage of men in “Fight Fight Fight” T-shirts.

Mr. Constantino wore black jeans, good shoes, a “Constantino for Congress” T-shirt and casual black suit jacket also embroidered “Fight Fight Fight.”

Mr. Constantino spoke for 15 minutes.

Featured guests Republican operative Roger Stone and long-time MMA star Jorge Masvidal had already spoken.

The sound quality was poor. All the words — even from ring announcer Mike Falvo — were 100 percent unintelligible, at least from the floor and mid-level seats.

Most of the enthusiastic crowd appeared to be there for the free MMA, but Mr. Constantino missed an opportunity to connect with a potentially amenable audience.

To hear what was said, you can find the fights, play-by-plays and speeches in the live-streamed recording on the Cage Wars Facebook page.

Meanwhile, upstairs in the lobby, fans flocked to Mr. Constantino, Mr. Stone, other guests and especially MMA superstar turned boxer, Mr. Masvidal.

Mr. Masvidal later came ringside with his wife Alexanda Morillo to watch several matches and meet fans, posing warmly for pictures and signing autographs.

Cage Wars owner Tim Rankin told The Chronicle’s Zander Frost that he aims to return with more MMA. Mr. Mead tells this reporter they plan to talk about doing something “maybe in the fall.”

What NY21 Congress hopeful Anthony Constantino told the crowd at Cage Wars

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Bad sound quality meant that most people didn’t hear what Anthony Constantino said in his 15-minute speech during the Cage Wars Freedom Night event he presented for free last Friday at the Cool Insuring Arena.

His words are clear on the livestream video, available on the Cage Wars Facebook page. Here’s some of what Mr. Constantino said:

•
Listen, I don’t even know what I’m gonna say tonight, because unlike other politicians, I don’t write speeches. I just talk honestly, off the top of my head….

Honestly, a few months ago, I had no idea that I would be here. Like many people, hopefully many people in this crowd, I was just a citizen that was frustrated by the way our favorite president was treated and by the way his supporters were treated.

I watched on the sidelines for eight years as people were very disrespectful…

…I ended up deciding to speak up after he was shot…I immediately endorsed him. It became the most viral endorsement of the 2024 campaign cycle.

I risked my reputation, risked my company. After I did it, everybody said, Stand down. What are you doing? You have a great company, 1,200 people, about 1,000 people in New York State, where I decided to stay and fight — unlike some other people who also want the (NY-21) seat that ran away and now are quickly running back. I know their name, but I’m not going to say it right now.

…I said, I can’t be quiet. I got to keep supporting the president. We have to encourage more people to stand up and admit they support the president.

I thought to myself, what’s the best way to do that? I ended up erecting a sign, a beautiful sign that said, Vote for Trump, and I put it on top of my tallest factory building in Amsterdam. You can see it from the Thruway.

Right away some bad political actors went nuts. They…tried to throw me in jail over the sign. Some incredible fighters came to my aid. Henry Cejudo, two-division UFC champion, Olympic gold medalist, showed up to support me. Kelvin Gastelum, Tracy Cortez, they introduced me to this guy who’s here right now. Jorge (Masvidal) was out there fighting before it was popular.

I joined when it was still not popular, but towards the end now, it’s very, very popular to support President Trump because of people like Mr. Mosvidal, Mr. (Roger) Stone, and maybe a little bit because of people like myself and my beautiful sign.

…I told everybody we were going to have a landslide re-election for President Trump….I called it, right? I called everybody in New York to the biggest election night party in New York State, in front of the sign, thousands of people once again showed up.

…Because I dared to get in the ring and stick up for our president on election night, a nasty Democrat whose name I’d love to say, but I’m not going to, because I’m a nice person, even though he isn’t — he called Rivers Casino, and he said he doesn’t want anything to do with Cage Wars anymore, as long as I’m involved.

In order to acquiesce..after eight years of packing the casino, they got kicked out in the middle of the night. Should have never happened. Another foolish action on behalf of the Democrats.

And by the way, I know there’s some Democrats in the crowd, it’s important you hear this, because you need to know people like myself and Jorge and Roger, we want what’s best for everybody. Doesn’t matter your party. I want what’s best for New York State period.

Attacking businesses like Cage Wars with political power and government power is totally wrong….You got to fight back.

I don’t like when people attack my friends.

…And right away I thought to myself, where should we go? I said, How about the biggest venue in the district — where I happened to finish my own wrestling career, right here in the Glens Falls Cool Insurance Arena, although it used to be called the Glens Falls Civic Center.

“Thank you all for coming out. I come up with this idea. I had no idea I would be running for Congress. Next thing I know, everyone’s calling me and saying, Anthony, you gotta run for Congress.

…And now I’m here today asking for your support. I don’t care who you are in the crowd, Democrat, Republican, I’m asking for your support right now. I hear a lot of noise in the crowd. I can’t tell whether it’s happy noise or not so happy.

Since I said I was running, I’ve had a lot of attention, probably the most attention of anyone…in the race.

…I’m interested in running not just to be your Congressman. I’m interested in being the best Congressman in the United States of America….I want New York’s 21st district to have the best representation of anyone in the United States of America.

First thing, most importantly, we have to bring people back to New York…We’ve lost over a million people over the last four years because of political corruption and incompetence.

…We’re going to do it by doing things that make sense…like bringing high speed internet to the district all over the place, so everybody can enjoy the Internet economy, just like I did, so we can have remote jobs, just like many of my employees work.

We’re going to completely secure the northern border so that people stop flying up to Canada, crossing illegally and freezing to death in people’s backyards.

No more illegal drugs, no more illegal fentanyl…I’m going to badly embarrass any politician that advocates for illegal immigration. Illegal immigration is cruel, not only to Americans. It’s cruel to the immigrants too, who are sucking out of their countries to come here, cross the border, freeze to death and die, or as they do on the southern border, they cross and the girls get raped in the process. It’s gonna stop.

I’m gonna support other common sense policies, like ending the solar farm lottery. Farming is for crops, not for virtuous signaling….We’re going to support the farmers in a sensible way with a sensible farm bill that treats them all equally and protects them all equally.

Probably most important of all, just like President Trump inspired me to be here today, I will inspire more new blood to enter politics…I can tell you this right now, we’re never going to fix New York state with the same cast of characters we have today. We need new people, new blood, new talent and new energy.

I know you guys are all here to enjoy the fights. We’re going to enjoy them very soon. I promise you this right now, with your help…we’re going to turn New York around really quickly.

Today is the beginning of a new day for New York and for Cage Wars.

I promise you today, we’re going to have a lot of excitement coming for everybody in New York State, and for every fight fan who’s with us here today, Cage Wars is going to get bigger, better and more exciting than it ever was before, with bigger fighters, bigger events and more exciting special events, special guests.

Thank you so much for coming, for showing your support, and enjoy the rest of the fights.

Cathy, ringside, her take on MMA

By Cathy DeDe, Chronicle Managing Editor

Politics aside, for most of the crowd Friday night was about the fights, and the fighters. Many were clearly cheering for friends and family members.

The fighters represented seven martial arts gyms from Red Hook and the Mohawk Valley to local favorite Matt Secor’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in South Glens Falls.

Watching the grapplers was a reminder: This is not the blood-lust sport some outsiders might imagine.

It is a bit of a free-for-all combo, boxing, wrestling, kick-boxing, jui jitsu. There is sweat, and yes, blood on occasion. Protections are minimum. It’s skin on skin.

These men (women, too, but not this time in Glens Falls) — there’s an intensity, a respect for the fight and the opponent, clearly the desire to train one’s body and spirit to strive, to suffer even, to out-maneuver, out-press.

It’s man versus man, to use the literary motif — but also man versus self. Who subjects themselves to such sport? It’s the physical strength, the tactical wisdom, the absolute mental toughness.

Some amazing stuff — shorter stocky tough guy pinning a lanky opponent who then snakes his way, one painful centimeter at a time, back to standing (still to lose, but the guts of that!).

Coaches urge small adjustments that make huge impact, a foot or elbow a little to the side or up a bit on the other’s chin.
It’s brutal stuff, and there’s surely some bravado as well, but there was no trash-talking here.

They seem as much in it together as they are one against the other. Who other than the guy in the ring with you could understand the drive to be good at something so seemingly painful?

“You know you could be playing basketball, right? That’s fun,” I thought.

Opponents touch gloves before the fight, between rounds, after one’s been crushed, sometimes on his knees in agony. They bow to each other. The respect, the sportsmanship, impressive.

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