‘Cringe’: Watch MMA star Joe Schilling punch a patron at this Fort Lauderdale bar
Mixed martial artist Joe Schilling’s video showing him punching a man at a Fort Lauderdale Sunday night is no longer for public consumption. At least on his Instagram.
The MMA great’s page, which contained a post of the altercation, has been deactivated. Schilling, 37, posted the clip Monday before it was taken down for violating the social media site’s guidelines on harassment and bullying.
The video of the incident remains elsewhere on the Internet, including on Twitter page Beyond Kickboxing. The quick clip shows Schilling walking up from behind the victim, later identified as Justin Balboa, who is laughing and swaying slightly. The two men exchange words and then you see Schilling turn and give him a one-two punch; Balboa falls to the ground as bystanders scream.
In a now deleted Insta post, Schilling defended his actions, telling his followers he’d been being harassed by the Balboa, 31, and that the professional kickboxer known as “Stitch Em Up” was acting in “self defense.”
The video does not show Balboa raising his fists and the background music noise is so loud it’s difficult to hear the conversation.
WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE.
According to an incident report from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department obtained by the Miami Herald, Balboa contacted authorities following the altercation for documentation purposes.
The complaint says that an officer was dispatched to B Square Burgers & Booze on East Las Boulevard in reference to a battery that had occurred at around 11:30 p.m.
The officer spoke to B Square’s manager, “Mike,” who said that all parties involved in the “kerfuffle” were gone, as per the report.
“The manager did state that the male who was struck 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,” said the police report. “The manager further stated that the person who was struck is a regular customer who routinely causes problems at the establishment due to his intoxication level. Numerous other patrons of the establishment corroborated the manager’s story stating the male who was struck started the altercation.”
The complaint adds that a short time later dispatch received a call from Balboa, who had moved on to a different bar down the street, the Royal Pig.
“Officers made their way down to the victim and upon making contact with him, [saw he] had a bloody lip.”
The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department was contacted to respond to treat the victim, an Outback busboy, and transport him to Broward General Hospital at his request.
Balboa, who was “obviously intoxicated,” said the report, told authorities that a “six foot five, 270 pound man just hit him for no reason and would not elaborate on how or why the male punched him.”
Balboa was given a victims’ rights booklet and a case number prior to being transported to the hospital.
No charges had been formally filed by the Weston man as of Thursday.
Balboa’s attorney Robert Solomon told MMA Fighting that his client did indeed go to the hospital after the public fracas and suffered a head injury; they plan to sue.
“It should not have happened,” Solomon told the outlet. “You watch that video and you cringe. I think a professional fighter overreacted to a situation, that he didn’t need to do what he did.”
If charges are filed, Schilling, who is based in Los Angeles, could face one misdemeanor charge of simple battery.
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 5:21 PM.
