Matt Brown’s weekend trip to Brazil for his UFC 198 fight did not go very well, after an incident the broke out the morning after outside his hotel.
“The immortal” was allegedly sucker punched by his former jiu-jitsu coach Rodrigo Botti, as confirmed by his wife Colleen.
A video of the incident was captured, where Botti was seen being apprehended and violently restrained by some members of Brown’s team. One of his friends namely Vinicus “Pequeno” Lemos was seen raining down punches on Botti, who was turtled up in defense at one point.
The video had made its rounds online, garnering mixed reactions from fans. Brown had been mum about the incident until Tuesday, when he appeared on the Great MMA Debate podcast (transcription via MMA Fighting).
“I got up late [on Sunday], came down for lunch and I’m sitting there sipping coffee and suddenly I feel something on the side of my head,” Brown narrated. “I thought that it was a fan…you know, these fans that were smacking me in the head, that’s what it felt like, right?”
“So I thought maybe a guy was hitting my shoulder a little bit hard and missed. Or maybe I moved at the wrong time or something, and I kind of looked at my coach and was like, ‘what a d*ck – what a dick move.’”
As Botti fled the scene after punching Brown, Vice President of Athlete Development Reed Harris immediately gave chase, running through some shattered glass from a door that Botti broke in the process.
The rest of the members from Brown’s team then caught up with Botti, who was seen trying to hail a cab outside the hotel.
Brown got back to the United States on Monday unscathed from the incident, as confirmed by UFC officials. As for Botti, he says what happened was very much warranted.
“Botti got what was coming to him. This coward of a man got what was coming.”
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