Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski has spoken out for the first time since he went viral on Saturday night after successfully defending himself against several of notoriously obnoxious influencer Jack Doherty’s entourage in a brawl following the Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua event in Miami.
Doherty is well known for deliberately provoking people live on stream by bumping into them and then hiding behind his bodyguard, but he picked the wrong person this time as Arlovski turned around to confront him.
At that point Doherty’s entourage tried to attack Arlovski, but he sent one staggering backwards and had a brief exchange with the huge bodyguard, before bundling another assailant to the ground and kicking him.
Doherty’s bodyguard wisely opted not to get involved any further and the universally disliked influencer soon gathered up his cronies and bid a hasty retreat.
“First of all, I didn’t beat [up] anyone, I just stopped the threat,” Arlovski said in an Instagram Story. “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.”
“I guess because they were looking for content for their website and I guess I was the victim. 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.“
Arlovski went on to acknowledge that the bodyguard did land a punch while he was dealing with the first attacker.
“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 went on to say he would “absolutely” be willing to fight Doherty’s bodyguard in the future.
“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.”
