An Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter charged with felony assault in Iowa is scheduled to fight at an UFC event at Key Arena on December 8. If you're not familiar with the hallowed American sport known as UFC, it's basically two men in a cage, punching and kicking each other into bloody pulps.

UFC fighter Jeremy "Little Heathen" Stephens was cited as a suspect in a fight outside of Fat Tony's Sports Tap in Des Moines, IA in 2011. He allegedly helped a friend beat the living hell out of US Army veteran Shane Schreck, leaving Schreck unconscious and barely breathing.

But apparently, Stephens avoided arrest until October 5 of this year, when he was taken into custody by Minneapolis police on a warrant for the 2011 assault just hours before a scheduled UFC fight. Stephens was extradited to Iowa and held on a $100,000 bond relating to two felonies and a misdemeanor charge: Willful Injury Causing Serious Injury, Burglary in the First Degree, and Assault Causing Bodily Injury.

Now he's out of the joint and eager to "hammer fist" fellow cage-fighter Yves Edwards in Seattle next month.

Is it asking too much to suspend an employee—a grown man who gets paid to kick people in the head—while his charges for allegedly assaulting a veteran play out in court?

Apparently so. UFC president Dana White says he believes Stephens is innocent. And Stephens himself seems less than repentant, or even respectful of the circumstances surrounding the veteran's alleged beating; he's now selling "Free Little Heathen" t-shirts:

None of this is terribly surprising—the UFC has a long and storied history of being connected with blatantly homophobic and misogynistic remarks. In fact, Dana White is the same guy who called one female reporter a "dumb bitch" during a video rant. (Imagine the NFL commissioner dropping F-bombs like a disgruntled 14-year-old.)

This post has been updated