Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight Matt Brown has a long and bizarre history with his former Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach Rodrigo Botti, starting with an argument that turned violent way back in early 2015 at the Ohio Combat Club in Columbus, Ohio.
See how it all stared here.
Botti claims Brown and his boys beat the shit out of him and ruined his combat sports career. So, when he learned "The Immortal" was in town for UFC 198, which took place last weekend in Curitiba, Brazil, he blew a gasket and went to exact his revenge.
Now, what's done is done, according to Botti's conversation with MMA Fighting.
"When you're cowardly assaulted like I was, you can't control yourself. This guy destroyed my career, I lost part of my vision because of him, had to do another surgery. I couldn't sleep normally for 15 months, it changed my entire life. I simply exploded (when I saw him)... He was a coward when he did what he did to me, and I'm satisfied with my attitude now. We are even. Everything could have been prevented if he had admitted he was wrong when he attacked me, or at least called me apologizing. Everybody is entitled to make a mistake, but the problem is that he had a fight coming up with Johnny Hendricks and a win could get him a title shot, so he was afraid of being punished. He decided to lie about it. That's when it became personal, brother. I would never work with him anymore, but if he apologized, I'd forget it. If people are saying I was a coward against Matt Brown, which I don't think I was, I'll say that one cowardly action was paid back with another. But I don't believe I was a coward."
Botti was chased down by Brown broski Vinicius Lemos and slugged in the street (video).
It was a rough couple of days for "The Immortal." Not only was he submitted by Demia Maia on the UFC 198 pay-per-view (PPV) main card, he was also knocked around by a couple of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans on the way to the Octagon (see it here).
Brown has yet to respond to Botti's latest comments.