Matt Brown Accused Of Brutal Assault In Ohio Gym *Updated*
UFC welterweight top 10 competitor Matt Brown has been in many wars in the octagon, but it looks like “The Immortal” may have landed himself in trouble recently outside the cage. Brown stands accused of a fairly brutal assault that allegedly took place on February 3rd between he and Ohio Combat Club co-owner Rodrigo Botti.
Also Brown’s former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, Botti posted a detailed account of the assault on his Facebook page. Although he never names Brown as the attacker, he identifies his Muay Thai coach and alleges Brown as the one throwing ‘multiple punches”. MMAFighting.com confirmed an investigation is underway by Hilliard Police. Check out Botti’s account:
“The truth is we were having an argument and he started to yell,” Botti posted to Facebook. “[He said], ‘If you keep talking I can’t fucking talk’ and repeated that a few times before he went crazy and flipped the glass table of the desk to the floor and came after me with multiple punches on my head while I was seating [sic] in the chair.
“I stood up leaning my back against the wall and all I did was cover my eye with one arm and yell, ‘my eye you son of b*tch don’t touch my eye,’ while he was throwing punches in my head.”
“His muay Thai coach and only witness didn’t stop him, he slowly walked behind him and said, ‘ok, enough,’ so he basically stopped because he wanted to. Then the muay Thai coach was in between me and him and I said, ‘you are a piece of shit coward because you know I can’t fight back,’ and I said, ‘If I could we would fight til someone die here, I don’t punch not because I don’t have balls but because I can go blind forever,’ and as soon as I said that he pushed his friend out of his way and came after me again with another set of multiple punches in the head while I was just covering again.”
“Later that day the brother of the fighter that assaulted called me because he is a lawyer and he asked me, ‘What do you want to make things go smoothly?’ I said, ‘I want to know what you would want if you go blind for the rest of your life, I want what is right and hopefully the judge is gonna say it.’
“Later that day I got informed that the person that assaulted me and his muay Thai coach told police that I shoved him first and he only threw one punch, it was probably a super punch then because made a few bumps in my head, 1 big one and also hurt my eye *.”
* The alleged assault is said to have opened 16 internal stitches on Botti’s eye and requires surgery to fix.
“There is no ‘my side of the story’ there is just what happened, and what happened I posted here on my page already because I am worried about my students to know only,” Botti said.
“I am not worried about his followers to know or anything related to him. He will have to deal with court when the time comes. I am just worried [about running] my gym and [keeping] my students happy, they are already happier that he left and they are disgusted by his recent attitudes after he assaulted me.”
That’s a pretty grim recollection of what could be a big deal for “The Immortal”. On top of all the terrible news of PED (performance enhancing drug) busts lately, a Matt Brown assault is not what we need to hear. MMA in general is suffering a pretty savage beatdown as of late. Could this latest incident cost Brown his fight with former welterweight champion Johny Hendricks at UFC 185?
There are obviously two sides to every story, and we’ll keep you updated as this one evolves, but it’s sounding pretty damning right now.
Update
Here is Matt Brown’s side of the story, he admits to punching Botti but claims it was in self defense, as per a post to his Facebook account:
“Alright I gotta say something now I suppose. I have WAY bigger fish to fry, but I can’t help it anymore being that my name is being defamed by a former friend. Yes, I punched the him in the face. No, I am not a violent person. I was provoked. I was pushed first. He put his hands on me first and then cried to the police about it after. That is a bitch move. Not how 2 grown ass men sort things out. I’m not going to give the long version and I’m not going to comment a lot about it. I don’t need the stress and I don’t feel like I need to expend the energy on someone so pathetic. I just absolutely have to let everyone know that I was pushed first and also walked away first and have stayed away and tried to let things simmer down (to no avail). So no more OCC for me for now. Hopefully people see through the lies and see the truth of the matter. I’m not perfect but I’m not in the wrong here. That’s it.”
