Markwayne Mullin has an incredible story. The Republican U.S. senator is an entrepreneur and former mixed martial arts fighter. That unique experience has been a core part of Mullin’s political brand and featured in multiple campaign ads, including one that showed off his punching bag workouts alongside footage of President Donald Trump declaring, “Markwayne Mullin, you don’t want to fight with him.”
However, following his nomination by Trump to lead the Department of Homeland Security, some aspects of Mullin’s record have come under scrutiny. And TPM has found that Mullin has a pattern of making improbable claims that raised eyebrows among his colleagues and even one Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach who left a meeting believing the lawmaker was “full of crap” when it came to his martial arts exploits.
One member of Congress, who requested anonymity to candidly discuss private conversations, said they were similarly skeptical after a sit-down with Mullin.
“We sat and talked. He just told me this story of his life that was so cinematic,” the member of Congress said. “His stories were just so fantastical.”
TPM reached out to Mullin’s office to ask about his allegedly exaggerated stories. We received a statement from White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, who dismissed the reporting, criticized former President Joe Biden’s record on immigration, and suggested Mullin was an ideal choice to deliver on Trump’s border policy.
“TPM is wasting their time elevating anonymous sources,” Jackson said, adding, “Here’s the truth: in record time, President Trump has ended Biden’s border crisis and deported countless dangerous criminal illegal aliens. Senator Mullin is perfectly suited to lead the Department of Homeland Security and work closely with President Trump to continue building on his many successes. Whether it be protecting the homeland from bad actors, stopping dangerous drugs from flowing into American communities, or removing the worst-of-the-worst criminal illegal aliens, Senator Mullin will work tirelessly to implement the President’s agenda.”
However, the concerns about Mullin’s prior claims are not just coming from anonymous sources.
Trump revealed Mullin as his pick to lead DHS “effective March 31” in a post on his Truth Social platform earlier this month. The president made the announcement at the same time that he fired the prior DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, whose tenure at the agency, which is in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and largely responsible for Trump’s mass deportation agenda, was beset by controversy.
In the days ahead of his nomination, Mullin’s penchant for elaborate storytelling made headlines. On March 2, in an appearance on Fox News, Mullin, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, offered up an evocative description of the reality of conflict.
“War is ugly, it smells bad, and if anybody’s ever been there, and been able to smell the war that’s happened around you and taste it and feel it in your nostrils and hear it, it’s something that you’ll never forget, and it’s ugly,” Mullin said.
While Mullin’s description suggested personal familiarity with the field of battle, he has not actually served in the armed forces. Rep. Pat Ryan (D-NY), an Army veteran who served in Iraq, pointed this out in an X post where he took Mullin to task and suggested the senator had exaggerated his own record.
“Hey @SenMullin, what the actual f— are you talking about?,” Ryan wrote. “Did I miss the part of your bio where you served in combat (or served in uniform at all??). Call of Duty doesn’t count.”
In addition to Ryan’s scathing questioning, Mullin’s comment generated a wave of similar reactions and critical coverage. Amid the controversy, he appeared on a conservative podcast on March 3 where one of the hosts referred to him as “a veteran.” Mullin offered a clarification that raised its own questions.
“First of all, let me clarify … I did special assignments outside of DOD,” Mullin said, using an acronym for the Department of Defense. “I never wore the uniform or the flag. … I got to work alongside of those guys, and they’re phenomenal individuals.”
It was unclear what “special assignments” Mullin was referring to.
Mullin’s recent comments about his experiences with war prompted a round of fact checking, including a definitive piece from Poynter which noted the remark “could have been a reference” to an incident in 2021 when Mullin, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at the time, attempted to enter Afghanistan to perform a rescue mission amid the American military’s chaotic departure from the country. Based on his own statements about the trip, Mullin never actually made it on the ground. His office did not respond to Poynter’s questions about what “special assignments” he was involved in.
While Mullin’s various remarks about war have made the news, his stories about another type of battlefield have been a far more prominent narrative in his political career. Since his first House campaign in 2012, Mullin has regularly touted his status as a former professional cage fighter.
The main image on his campaign website is currently a picture of Mullin wearing a t-shirt from his high school wrestling team standing in front of a kickboxing bag and a display showing the colored belts used in various martial arts disciplines. Mullin’s biography on the site touts him as “a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter with a professional record of 5-0” and a “fighter for America First.” Mullin’s site also touts the fact he “was inducted into the Oklahoma Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2016.” His biography on that organization’s website largely cites his political and business achievements while noting that a “recurring shoulder injury” ensured he only “wrestled briefly at Missouri Valley College” after practicing the sport in high school.
Along with featuring his identity as a “fighter” in campaign materials, in 2023, Mullin brought his pugilism to the Senate floor when he stood and challenged a union leader to a fight during a hearing. The exchange prompted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) to urge the two men to sit down.
Mullin does indeed have a record in the ring. Multiple MMA databases identify Mullin as having an undefeated 3-0 record. TPM asked Mullin’s office and the White House if they could provide a source for his claim of a 5-0 record. They did not immediately respond to that request.
On March 12, Mullin’s MMA career was the subject of scrutiny on the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast, produced by The Athletic. The show’s host, award winning sports reporter Pablo Torre, and his guests, comedian Wyatt Cenac and political commentator Tim Miller, took note of the discrepancy in Mullin’s record.
“According to his stats, he is an undefeated fighter who either is 5-0 or 3-0 depending on what sources you look at,” Cenac said.
“You can’t quite tell,” Torre noted.
The show also delved into the details of Mullin’s three documented victories. One came in 2006 against a man named Bobby “Huggie Bear” Kelley, who, at the time was 18 years old. Mullin was 29 years old.
“I have a lot of questions around a man in his late 20’s who choked out a teenager, but that counts as a victory I suppose,” Cenac said.
Kelley did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TPM.
Mullin’s two other documented professional victories came in 2007 against a man named Clinton Bonds.
According to MMA databases, Bonds’ record includes just one win and 11 losses. While TPM was unable to reach Bonds for comment, we did find footage of him participating in a boxing match from around the time he battled Mullin. The video shows Bonds losing while eating a slew of punches and falling to the ground repeatedly.
All of Mullin’s documented MMA bouts came in 2006 and 2007 in the XTreme Fighting League, an Oklahoma-based promotion that often featured amateur fighters making their professional debut. The years when Mullin fought were also a time when MMA was far less competitive and popular than it is today. On the podcast, Miller questioned the quality of Mullin’s competitions.
“He’s 3-0 in what appears to me to be like a semipro MMA league. … It’s based in Tulsa,” Miller said. “It kind of feels like somebody playing in the company softball league, winning three championships, and then running for the Senate, and being like, ‘I am the first senator who was a softball champion.’”
Despite the questions about his martial arts record, Mullin has allegedly told even more dramatic tales about his exploits inside his office. TPM spoke to a person who is currently a Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach who said they interviewed several years ago for a staff position with Mullin’s House office. The coach claimed that Mullin told an elaborate story about his own journey at the sport’s highest levels.
“In the middle of the interview, he goes, ‘Oh, I see you have jiu-jitsu on your resume. I’m a black belt world champion,” the coach recounted.
While the coach requested anonymity because they continue to work in proximity to politics as well as martial arts, TPM verified their BJJ affiliations. The coach also provided documentation of their interview with Mullin. They also shared a more contemporaneous account of the incident on Reddit roughly two years ago.
In the coach’s recollection, Mullin went on to say he “went down to the World Championships in Brazil” and had fought in the finals against one of the members of the Gracie family, the clan that helped create both the sport of BJJ and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Mullin allegedly claimed, the coach said, that he had defeated the Gracie by “using all my wrestling.”
“Afterwards, all the Gracie brothers came up to me and asked if I could come to Brazil to teach wrestling,” Mullin allegedly said, according to the coach.
The coach said he asked which of the Gracies Mullin supposedly fought. He claimed Mullin replied that he did not specifically remember. The fame of the Gracie family, the well-documented nature of high level jiu-jitsu competitions, and the fact Mullin did not name a specific opponent made the coach immediately skeptical.
“In my mind, I was like, ‘there’s just no way.’ If you competed in the world championships of anything, you would know exactly who you competed against,” the coach explained. “There’s just no way that this guy is telling the truth. And I was like, ‘I don’t even think he’s a black belt.’”
The improbable tale completely distracted the coach.
“So I’m sitting there in the interview — I’m bombing the interview, by the way. I did terrible,” the coach said.
Mullin’s team did not answer questions from TPM about the coach’s account, including whether Mullin is a black belt.
The senator does have some documented history with Brazilian jiu-jitsu. A 2013 report from the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating Mullin for earning outside income above allowed limits and for promoting his personal businesses as a member of Congress, noted that he was “president and owner” of “Oklahoma Fight Club.” The investigators ultimately concluded that Mullin had “sought advice from the Committee staff about his family business” and “substantially complied with most of that advice.” Corporate records also link Mullin to “Oklahoma Fight Club,” which was an MMA gym that offered jiu-jitsu classes in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Records show that, as a member of “Oklahoma Fight Club,” Mullin participated in a jiu-jitsu competition in Miami at a blue belt level in 2010. He won a match there.
Those achievements are a far cry from holding a black belt or winning a championship in Brazil. A win of that magnitude would typically be extensively documented. Black belts also are a high honor that often come with certificates when granted by reputable coaches.
There are five typical belt levels in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Black belt is the highest and can usually only be achieved with well over a decade of regular training and competition. Blue belt is the second level and usually takes around two years to earn.
Overall, the BJJ coach who interviewed with Mullin, said that, in light of his position in the Senate, they were disturbed by the gulf between his alleged claims in the interview and his actual record. The experience left them with one big lingering question:
“I’m like, this guy’s lying about this, what else is this guy lying about?”
