Andrei Arlovski says he was only defending himself after altercation with Jack Doherty
Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski addressed his backstage brawl with streamer and influencer Jack Doherty with a statement released on Instagram following an altercation at the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua fight in Miami on Friday
Doherty, who has largely built his brand around bumping into people and then hiding behind his bodyguard, picked the wrong person to play that prank after running into Arlovski. Videos showed Doherty pulling his usual stunt bumping into Arlovski but the veteran fighter wasn’t playing games and Doherty’s security didn’t seem too eager to intervene this time around.
A few seconds later, Doherty’s crew started swinging and Arlovski came right back at them, eventually knocking one down and kicking at him before security broke up the melee.
“First of all, I didn’t beat [up] anyone, I just stopped the threat,” Arlovski said about the incident. “They were threatening me, my wife, my kid and I have another friend [who was there]. I did what I was supposed to do, what every man is supposed to do. Stop the threat. I didn’t beat them. I just stopped the threat.”
Multiple videos surfaced showing off the brawl and Doherty can be seen wearing a wireless microphone on his shirt so he was obviously recording his entire backstage walk at the Kaseya Center in Miami when the brawl broke out.
While Doherty can be heard shouting “chill” numerous times after the situation popped off, members of his crew were still taking swings at Arlovski, who had no intention of backing down.
“I guess because they were looking for content for their website and I guess I was the victim,” Arlovski said about the altercation. “They thought maybe it was going to be easy content for YouTube. Maybe that’s why. Maybe I’m old. Maybe because it was three idiots and a big bodyguard.
“Actually it’s kind of weird because I saw him walking but I didn’t pay attention, he said he might be with him and he kind of landed one punch. I have to be more alert and pay attention to people that come around. That’s the lesson.”
Arlovski gave credit to his wife for calming down the situation after it first popped off because the veteran fighter admitted he was “about to snap” when it happened.
The whole ordeal lasted less than a minute before Arlovski exited in an elevator and Doherty scurried away as quickly as possible.
Arlovski admitted he did get punched one time during the brawl and happily volunteered to fight Doherty’s bodyguard if perhaps Jake Paul or someone else wanted to make it happen.
“That guy he was sneaky,” Arlovski said. “He sucker punched me and I didn’t accept this f*cking punch, to be honest with you. They just tried to film some content I guess. [Jack Doherty] was successful at hiding behind his bodyguard’s back and ran away.”
Category: General Sports
