Gym Instructor: Josh Neer ‘Beatdown’ Blown Out Of Proportion

Recently, a video surfaced of Josh Neer landing brutal ground and pound shots on a man who was clearly not defending himself. After a few seconds of nasty elbows, several men step in to pull Neer off the man, who has been identified of Patrick Martin, at which point Neer soccer kicks the man in the face.

The video is extremely graphic, and can be seen HERE. Following the video going viral, Neer explained that the man had been harassing him online for some time, which led to Neer inviting the man to the gym for a few rounds of sparring.

Now, RoundKick gym owner Pete Peterson is saying that the whole situation was blown out of proportion by internet trolls.

He spoke to MMAJunkie:

“It wasn’t the beatdown that that last 14 seconds makes everyone think. A lot of the trolls on the Internet just took off with it.”

Peterson went on to explain that when Neer told him about his invitation to Martin, that he was unsure of whether or not to let the sparring match happen, however Neer said he believed that Martin was simply looking for attention, but when Martin showed up at the gym on Monday, Peterson allowed the sparring session to go on.

“It’s better to be in the gym in a safe environment where it can be stopped than out in the street somewhere. I’ve been in martial arts for 25 years. Back in the old-school days, you hear about people walking into a martial arts school challenging the instructor and getting beat down. I’ve never, ever seen that happen in my life.”

“I think this is the first time anybody’s actually challenged and been disrespectful to one of our coaches here, or even to myself or anybody. He just wouldn’t let it go. He has, my gosh, 70, 80 pounds on Josh, about nine inches on Josh – he’s a bigger guy. So I let it go.”

“The elbows look bad, but they’re not hard-cut elbows. They were forearm, more or less. And you hear it on camera, and it sounds worse than it was. There was no soccer kick at the end. He stumbled over and his foot went out to catch his balance, and it got (Martin) in the face. That was not a soccer kick.”

“You don’t let a person walk over you. We have respect, but in some cases, it gets to a point where a guy pushes too far, and you have to make a stand.”