UFC fighter and Ohio native Matt Brown was recently involved in an altercation with his now-former jiu-jitsu coach, Rodrigo Botti.
Brown, who is set to face former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks in the biggest fight of his career at UFC 185 next month, posted about the incident on his Facebook page:
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.
Botti, who runs the Ohio Combat Club gym in Columbus where Brown trained and was a coach, possesses a 6-0 professional record in MMA and was signed with Bellator MMA as early as last year. But he has apparently suffered an eye injury and no longer shows up on the organization’s roster on their website.
Botti also posted his account of the incident on his own Facebook page (the Muay Thai coach he refers to is allegedly Dorian Price, who competed on The Ultimate Fighter 6 a season before Brown):
Well, I wouldn’t say anything here and let the law system speak but looks like the other side of the story is posting things on facebook and trying to get people with them.
Here is what happened clear and simple.
This UFC fighter who I coached til the day of the incident assaulted me with multiple punches in the head while I was seating in the chair behind the desk.
Makes even worse when he knew about my eye condition and the eye surgery that I had only 3 weeks before the day he assaulted me. He also knew I had 16 internal stitches in my eye.
Those stitches popped from 2pm to 7pm according the doctor and I had another surgery yesterday.
In fact I had 4 surgeries in this eye in the last 15 months and he knew about my struggle with this eye.
The same person that did that to me invited me to do sauna at Life Time fitness on sunday 2 days before the incident, I stopped by his house where I dropped a gift for one of his kids and we went to sauna and there he said I was his best friend and he was glad he could see now a bunch ok fake people he was surrounded with.
Now some facts that I will have to put on the fan here so you guys can have more material to make your own judgment.
Only one person was there when this happened and the person is his muay thai coach that he brings whenever he has a fight scheduled.This time he flew this guy that was in Spain.
He also gives this guy a place to stay and even one of his cars so he can drive around the city to go train him on top of the 4,500 dollars that he pays for the training camp for each coach including me.
With that said this muay thai coach that lives in Thailand basically sold his soul for it, 4,500 american dollars is a lot of money in Thailand. Maybe in his mind he was just sticking for his friend but NO, the truth is you are making fake statements to the police which is a very serious thing and a crime.
You should say what you saw and not lie to the police because you are “sticking for a friend”, also I always tried to help you even putting you to teach classes at the gym so you could make some extra money and thought he was also my friend and always had good relationship with.
Anyways, the person that assaulted me and the only witness (his long time friend and muay thai coach) told the police that I pushed him first and that he only threw one punch.
If you are a little intelligent it would be hard to believe that someone that doesn’t train any type of striking activities for the last 15 months because of an eye condition would push and start a fight with someone that is active and only 4 weeks before the biggest fight of his life, plus til the moment that he assaulted me I was still his coach.
The truth is we were having an argument and he started to yell “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 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 bitch 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.
And he left, his friend left with him.I called 911
His friend came back minutes later to pick up his training gear and said ” He fucked up bad, that’s bad, he broke the chain” and left as police was pulling over.I said “You saw everything” and he said “I didn’t see anything” and left.
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.
Now he is putting this bullshit on facebook saying he defended himself and that he is not a violent person.
Who knows you also knows that you are lieing.
I won’t even bring your past here but I will bring what you call the people that are supporting you right now.
You call your wrestling coach an alcoholic, you call your radio friend a pussy and fake black belt, and you also make fun of some of your sponsors and more as well as talk shit about the other gyms in Columbus with 2 in special, Ronin and Grove City Jiu-Jitsu.
I could stay all day here listing all that.
One thing I need to make straight here, I love his kids and everybody close knows how I feel about them but I can’t let this pass because I know his family.
I also have family that loves me and they would not want their son/brother/cousin losing their vision because of one coward assault.
I will leave it to the lawyers now and pray that people will find out who is telling the truth and who is lieing.
And this part of the message here goes to Jeremy Loper, the person that wrote a post on his page about Ohio Combat Club today and then blocked me, I wonder why.
First of all looks bad for you to tell all the world that I was the best jiu-jitsu instructor that you ever had and now trash talk the gym. Who will take you serious??
You claim you were used for “publicity”?? Your kids karate program had only 3 paying students in 4 months. If you think you were used for publicity you should reconsider your marketing plan. I bet I will get more students now with you trash talking the gym.
Even your “friend” that assaulted me tells everyone you are not a fighter or real black belt and just want to be “cool” hanging out at the gym, in fact when he heard you are going to Dallas to his fight he said he doesn’t want pussies around him in the fight week, that’s your friend right there.
Also he tells people closer to him that you are only his friend because he is “famous” and that if he wasn’t “famous” you wouldn’t even talk to him. In this case he claims that it’s you using him for publicity, like the podcast you have with him, he says you want him on your podcast and the other guy from fox sports [Damon Martin] so you can have some recognition in the mma world.
I would say he is right on that, you even told me that you don’t like Jon Anik because he is “taking” your spot, what????
For your information the guy that assaulted me was the one who told me to put you to teach there because I wanted Dan Spohn teaching, which is a legit karate instructor and fighter.
By the way, I can’t even count how many times he told his kids “let me teach you real fighting and not what you are learning with Loper”, again that’s your friend right there.
And I am glad any type of cancer is out of OCC, for those who stayed I am sure they already noticed a better environment.
About you saying you invited me to Christmas at your house you just forgot to mention you told me I couldn’t go anymore when I was on my way there and I would even dress as Santa Claus for your kids like I did to Sawchuk’s family, the reason you said I couldn’t go anymore it’s because I had the puppy with me and you said someone there was allergic to it.
You guys and your your group of “cool” people can all turn your backs to me.
I am laughing in the inside and I thank God for how wonderful he is in taking all the bad people away from my life.
At the end of the day is what gives me peace and I am sure have a reason for all this that is happening right now.
I can’t wait to all the TRUTH comes up and I am gonna count how many people are gonna come to me and apologize to take that person side.
Unfortunately for them I will not be friends with those again, when I say unfortunately for them is because who knows me also knows that when I am friends with someone is because I like them as a person and not because of interests like the “friendships” in your group where everybody talk shit about everybody.
I can forgive but they are out of my life.
That’s all I can say for now.
Police and law system is gonna handle the rest.
The gym still open and classes are even better now.
For his part, here is the post from Jeremy Loper that Botti referred to:
Just to clear up any confusion…I am NOT in anyway involved with Ohio Combat Club – OCC MMA any longer. I wish everyone who decides to stay there the best.
Being used for publicity is not a good feeling. Inviting someone to join your family for the Holidays, only to then be stabbed in the back is not a good feeling either.
I regret that I suggested this gym to anyone in Columbus. I do not endorse or support OCC.
I’ll announce the NEW location of my Kempo Karate and self defense program very soon. Sorry for any confusion. Rock on, guys!!#StayPositive
The UFC has yet to release a statement on the matter and they likely won’t say much if the police are involved, but this situation doesn’t seem to be over just yet.
This isn’t the first bit of hot water that Brown has been in, as he was forced to apologize early last year after making derogatory comments about wanting to see female fighters competing topless in the UFC.