Athletic Commission Investigating Josh Neer After Beatdown In Iowa

It’s been two days now since a video of Josh Neer damn near decapitating an alleged ‘troll’ and fellow student at Iowa’s Roundkick gym emerged. The subject in the video, Patrick Martin, appeared to get battered unconscious in the 14-second clip. Members of Neer’s group then stepped in to halt the action, but not before an apparent soccer kick to the dome.

Here is a brief snippet of what reasons the 51-pro fight veteran gave for the beating:

“Basically the guys a dumbass and been talking shit about MMA fighters for a month. On and on, I usually ignore him but this Saturday he wrote me on Facebook the message i gave. He had written 10 messages to me talking shit which I ignored, but this time I said if you really want to fight come to the gym Monday at 5:30.”

And the rest is history, except Patrick says that things went down a little differently:

“He’s adding all this talk, that I talk shit about MMA fighters when I talked shit to him after disrespecting me a bout a wrestling drill I was tired in! So I left it alone till I saw him out and I bought him a couple beers and then he walked of talking shit to his buddy about me! So I blew up on him on Facebook demanding a full contact spar! I said I’ll bring 16oz*. So the beef is with him and a couple other of his gyms fighter who was talking shit on my page!”

*Neer was wearing 4 oz gloves, he continues:

“Yeah the sparring session was planned and when I came in I was planning on sparing 2 fighters from the gym so I announced I’ll give them each three minutes. Neer replied real fight I sad I don’t have time for that so we agreed to a round! After saying “that’s all I need anyways with you” so I got my gloves and he needed more than a round!”

The problem that seems to have arisen surrounding the controversial beating is that Josh Neer is a sanctioned MMA fighter, and his impromptu opponent on the day may be trained in MMA, but was certainly no match for Neer by any means. In step the Iowa Athletic Commission official Joe Walsh:

 “We are aware of the situation, I have our legal team taking a thorough look at our rules. We’re checking to see if we have anything on the books that covers this. We do have certain standards that our athletes must meet.”

Would that standard include bashing internet trolls out cold and posting the video online? Probably not, although head coach Pete Peterson, who was present when Josh Neer battered Martin in the gym, says that the ‘bully’ never actually went out cold, and that the alleged soccer kick was actually a slip:

“I don’t know why he wasn’t defending himself with the hands better, but he was not unconscious,” Peterson said. “I was right there, and he got up and started running his mouth again. Then we kicked him out of the gym.”

So once again MMA is cast in a negative light. Why won’t people just leave their phones turned off?!? Seriously though, should Josh Neer be made to face the music by the Commission, or was he justified in doling out a beating to a guy that he could have simply blocked on Facebook?