Former Bellator fighter Joe Schilling may have felt great about knocking out a dude on camera in a bar recently, but he may be facing some charges because of it.
MMAFighting.com is reporting that Schilling “is potentially facing one misdemeanor charge of simple battery.”
The 37-year-old was caught on video knocking a man out after he took issue with him being bumped into and pushed to the side. According to a police report obtained by MMA Fighting, the man, identified himself as Justin Balboa, told officers that he is a 31-year-old busboy who works at an Outback Steakhouse restaurant.
“Representatives with the Fort Lauderdale Police Department initially made contact with Balboa on Sunday night. Balboa had a bloody lip and described Schilling as a 6-foot-5, 270-pound white male who “just hit him for no reason.” Balboa “would not elaborate on how or why the male punched him,” according to the police report, but was “obviously intoxicated.” That same night Balboa told officers that he “only wanted the incident documented in order to file a civil suit against the establishment.”
Officers also spoke to the manager of the bar on Sunday night. The manager stated that Balboa “was extremely intoxicated and had possibly made an improper remark about the girlfriend/wife of the male who had struck him, which caused the fight to escalate.” The manager also noted that Balboa “is a regular customer who routinely causes problems at the establishment due to his intoxication level.”
According to the police report, “numerous other patrons of the establishment corroborated the manager’s story,” stating that Balboa started the altercation.
After seeing the video, Balboa told officers that he changed his mind and wished to prosecute Schilling for the alleged attack.
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“It was something that should not have happened,” Balboa’s attorney, Robert Solomon, told MMA Fighting. “It should not have happened. You watch that video and you cringe. This is a professional fighter. To tell me you felt threatened as a professional fighter that’s fighting in the highest level of all the fighting, Bellator and all these things, I don’t buy it. I think it was uncalled for, and there’s consequences when you do things like that.
“I think a professional fighter overreacted to a situation, that he didn’t need to do what he did,” Solomon added, “and to punch somebody as hard as he punched this guy, he’s lucky he’s not dead and we’re dealing with a different type of case.”
Schilling, meanwhile, defended his actions on social media, saying that he was “scared for his life” in the confrontation and that all he had done was “simply defend myself against the evil in this world”.
He shared several notes to social media in which he claimed to have been contacted by ex-girlfriends of Balboa who allege that he was violent against them.
