Morning Report: Iowa Athletic Commission investigating Josh Neer following 'bully beatdown' incident
Professional fighters sure do seem to draw an inordinate amount of online abuse.
Yet, somehow, each morning, we don't all of a sudden awake to an avalanche of videos of pro fighters using their skills to hurt people.
Former UFC and Bellator veteran Josh Neer decided to buck that trend Monday when he posted a video of himself "sparring" a now former gym member at Iowa's RoundKick Gym.
In the video, which can be seen here, Neer can be seen slamming his elbow into a crumpled figure not once, not twice, but six times. Firing off a pair of right crosses and left hooks, Neer then stands over the man and soccer kicks him in the face.
While Neer appeared to be wearing typical four-ounce MMA gloves, his opponent appears to be wearing 16-ounce boxing gloves.
Speaking with Bloody Elbow's John Nash, Neer explains how his opponent's online badgering led to the incident at the fighter's local gym. "Basically the guys a dumbass and been talking shit about MMA fighters for a month. On and on, I usually ignore him but this Saturday he wrote me on Facebook the message i gave. He had written 10 messages to me talking shit which I ignored, but this time I said if you really want to fight come to the gym Monday at 5:30.
I don't know what his problem is but he's a big guy, like 6-6 and 270 pounds and just acts like a bully. That what he seems like to me, just a bully.
He showed up at 6:10, 40 mins into my practice. And then I asked him if he wanted to fight Rakim or me and Rakim is bigger then me so of course he chose me."
In an interview with MMA Fighting community member Emmery Myers, 'bully' Patrick Martin gave his take. EM: Glad you're not hurt. Thats incredible. So this was a planned match? How did it come about? Is Neer's version of events accurate?
PM: Not quite! he's adding all this talk, that I talk shit about MMA fighters when I talked shit to him after disrespecting me a bout a wrestling drill I was tired in! So I left it alone till I saw him out and I bought him a couple beers and then he walked of talking shit to his buddy about me! So I blew up on him on Facebook demanding a full contact spar! I said I'll bring 16oz. So the beef is with him and a couple other of his gyms fighter who was talking shit on my page!
While Martin says he only wanted a round of the fighter's time, he says Neer wanted a fight. EM: Was this sparring session preplanned? What were the rules?
PM: Yeah the sparring session was planned and when I came in I was planning on sparing 2 fighters from the gym so I announced I'll give them each three minutes. Neer replied real fight I sad I don't have time for that so we agreed to a round! After saying "that's all I need anyways with you" so I got my gloves and he needed more than a round!
Speaking with MMA Junkie, RoundKick head trainer Pete Peterson said Martin never lost consciousness from the strikes thrown by Neer in the video. He also claimed Neer never soccer kicked Martin, saying Neer 'tripped' while he was being pulled off.
"I don't know why he wasn't defending himself with the hands better, but he was not unconscious," Peterson said. "I was right there, and he got up and started running his mouth again. Then we kicked him out of the gym."
According to TMZ, the Iowa Athletic Commission is already looking into the incident.
"We are aware of the situation," says IAC Executive Director Joe Walsh. "I have our legal team taking a thorough look at our rules. We're checking to see if we have anything on the books that covers this."
"We do have certain standards that our athletes must meet."
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UFC's Josh Neer fights heckler **video**
Originally Posted by jjgold
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