(Former IFL fighter Claude Patrick: awake and relatively unscathed.)
It seems that the fighting didn’t stop with the final bell at Ottawa’s Freedom Fight this past weekend, as word of a taser-filled assault is spreading across the internet. The boys at Fightlinker (who attended the show, and whose whereabouts the time of the attack are currently unaccounted for) first mentioned the story yesterday.
Details about exactly who was tasered and beaten, by whom, and why, have all been sketchy. But Sherdog caught up with Canadian welterweight Claude Patrick, who was a victim of the assault. Unfortunately, because he was tasered into unconsciousness and then put into a medically-induced coma for twenty-four hours at the hospital, he doesn’t really know what happened either:
“All I know is that I walked into my friend Pete Rodley’s room to say goodnight and thanks for the show, and next thing I woke up in the hospital,” Patrick told Sherdog.com Monday. “I’m assuming I got tased from behind. They said I got hit with a stun gun or a taser and that’s all she wrote.”
[...]
“Dude, I was hoping you were calling me to tell me what happened,” Patrick joked. “They kept me in an induced coma for 24 hours and I just got up today. Actually, I thought today was Sunday.”
Well, at least he’s in good spirits. Patrick escaped with a chipped tooth and a cut lip, but thankfully no serious injuries. The Ottawa Sun reported that ten men stormed into the hotel room after the show and began tasering people and beating them with bottles, all as part of an apparent robbery attempt. But Metro Ottawa quotes a police officer who seems confident that robbery wasn’t the motive:
“That is not the cause,” said Vaillancourt. “Something happened the night before.”
Sounds like we’ve got a real MMA mystery on our hands. At least no one was more seriously injured or killed during all this.
Update: Sherdog says a CBC.ca report is attributing the attack to “a dispute over payment for sound and lighting services provided at the show.” Just, wow. Also, as reader “Nick” pointed out, ring announcer Chancey Voulgaris said another man was stabbed in the eye with a broken bottle, though his status has not yet been confirmed. If all this is true, the AV club types in Canada are some serious dudes.
Loading ...
Actually I thought the comparison between MMA and cars made logic sense!