Star Athletes Who Fought Off The Field

Darren - September 26, 2019

Star Athletes Who Fought Off The Field

Darren - September 26, 2019

27. Thabo Sefolosha

This is one of the most notorious incidents on this list. Sefolosha is a well-loved basketball player unless of course, you’re a member of the NYPD. Then you’re probably not such a big fan of the Atlanta Hawks star. By sheer coincidence, he would up in the same club where Chris Copeland got stabbed that night.

The police shut the club down and hundreds of people poured out onto the street. For some inexplicable reason, the police then decided to target Sefolosha, forcing him to the ground. One of the officers smashed his leg with an extendable baton, breaking it and ending his season. The basketball star reached a $4 million settlement with the NYPD.

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26. Milan Lucic

Lucic is a very large man, but people have still tried to pick a fight with him. The Vancouver native has been involved in a couple of messy situations in the past. In 2013, he said that he had given up defending his town after he was attacked in a nightclub. Afterward, he said that nobody would see him downtown in the city again.

A video went viral of the Bruins star throwing fists with an unknown assailant in front of the cops. Lucic revealed that he wasn’t proud of what happened, but at the end of the day, it was an unprovoked attack. Two men threw sucker-punches at the NHL star, so what was he to do? He had to defend himself.

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25. Randy Couture & Dan Henderson

Randy Couture and Dan Henderson are UFC legends. The retired MMA stars go back all the way to the days when they were on the US Greco-Roman Wrestling Team. They had both just made the squad and decided to celebrate with a few cocktails. This was back in 1995, so you can picture the two of them ready to go out and have some fun.

Couture put his hand on a car as he was tying his shoe and they were suddenly set upon. A crazy man with a baseball bat and his friends decided to come after them. Couture disarmed the man and chased him into a club with the bat. Meanwhile, Henderson dealt with the rest of the squad. The next day they went back to the same club and were quickly thrown out by security. You win some and you lose some.

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24. Facundo Espindola

The most tragic story on this list belongs to Facundo Espindola. The former Argentina soccer player was a goalkeeper in the National B division. He had come through River Plate’s famous youth system. Espindola was attacked after leaving a bar in the early hours of a Sunday morning in 2018.

CCTV footage captured men fighting on the street and also a group of them attacking one person. According to Spain’s Marca, after punches were thrown, one of the assailants slashed Espindola’s throat with a knife. He had just returned from injury to play for his club San Telmo.

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23. Taylor Hearn

Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Taylor Hearn got into a fight outside a bar in August 2019. The fight went down in the great State of Georgia and it definitely didn’t make for good viewing if you were Hearn. He got into an argument which he could have walked away from and decided to fight it out.

In short, he got knocked down and out cold. Police arrived on the scene but didn’t arrest him and no charges were pressed. Hearn issued an apology to his teammates and the fanbase for getting involved in the incident. It was entirely his own fault and he owned up to that.

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22. Chris Copeland

Copeland was actually stabbed on the same night that Thabo Sefolosha got his leg broken by the cops. The Pacers’ forward was with his girlfriend, Katrina Saltara, in the 1OAK nightclub in New York City when they got into an argument. An attacker then stabbed them with a spring-operated switchblade knife that he had smuggled into the club.

Copeland was released from the hospital after two days. He also suffered a fractured rib in addition to the knife wounds to his elbow and abdomen. Now married to Saltara, the pair sued the 1OAK for negligence and their delayed response to the attack.

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21. Danny Drinkwater

Don’t ever try to steal another man’s girlfriend. It just won’t end well for anybody involved, even if you’re a Premier League footballer. Drinkwater is a Premier League winner but hasn’t really done much else since his title success with Leicester City. He failed to establish himself with Chelsea and is now with Burnley.

Drinkwater is also a bit of a wildman. First of all, he tried to flirt with another pro soccer player’s girlfriend in a bar. Security kicked him out for causing a disturbance. Subsequently, he was chased by six men who wanted to break his legs with a blunt object. That’s not ideal if your legs are your career. He did suffer ligament damage and was out of action for a month.

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20. Malik McDowell

Don’t fight cops. You’ll just wind up getting thrown in the Paddywagon and that’s not something you want to go through. Malik McDowell was the Seahawks’ top pick in the 2012 NFL draft but never played for the team. He was arrested during the summer for assaulting a police officer in pretty crazy circumstances.

After stopping McDowell for speeding, a cop asked to see his license. McDowell demanded to see the cop’s supervisor, but obviously that isn’t how it rolls. Then he got out of his car and walked into a convenience store where the scuffle kicked off. He got tasered but brushed it off and tried to grab the officer’s gun. Big mistake. To sum up, he was overpowered and facing multiple charges, including assault and resisting arrest.

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19. Sean Avery

Avery is an incredibly entertaining and colorful individual. The former NHL star played for the likes of the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings in a controversial career. Known for his agitating style of play, Avery has actually stepped into the fashion world since retiring from hockey. According to him, women’s clothes tell a story.

The incident that we’re interested in happened in 2013. To sum up, Avery got sucker-punched by two men but that didn’t seem to faze him. Avery let his hands fly like a wildman and managed to deter his two attackers. Not only were there no charges, but they even hugged it out afterward. Nothing like a street fight to sort your problems out.

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18. Cody Gibson

If a UFC fighter tells you that they’re a UFC fighter and you still decide you want to take them on, then who’s really at fault? The answer is, you’re a moron. That’s the situation that UFC bantamweight Cody Gibson found himself in during a night out in Las Vegas.

For some weird reason, a guy decided he had an issue with Gibson so he decided to start shouting at the MMA fighter. Gibson reacted and the situation escalated. He tried to warn the guy who was messing with, but he didn’t listen. So Gibson took him down with a wrestling move and security escorted the idiot out of the establishment.

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17. Paul Pierce

Usually, people go to parties to have fun, not to get stabbed in the belly multiple times. Unfortunately for Paul Pierce, he was knifed more than five times in the Buzz Club in Boston back in 2000. Talk about a buzzkill. Pierce was still playing for the Boston Celtics at the time.

Pierce was hospitalized after the incident. He suffered wounds to his neck, face, and back. However, it wouldn’t stop him from coming back and having a Hall of Fame-worthy career. That’s inspirational stuff from the legendary All-Star. You’ve got to love it.

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16. Kimbo Slice

The ultimate streetfighter on this list, the late Kevin Ferguson is a legend. Initially, he had hopes of making it in the NFL but that never happened. So, he actually turned streetfighting into his career, going viral across the internet. He became such an icon that Rolling Stone would call him ‘The King of the Web Brawlers.’

In 2003, he began taking unsanctioned fights that were mostly arranged through adult website SublimeDirectory. In his first taped fight against a man called Big D, Ferguson left a large cut beside his eye, leading to the addition of ‘Slice’ to his childhood nickname ‘Kimbo.’

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15. Damontre Moore

Just four days before getting cut by the Dallas Cowboys in 2017, Damontre Moore went crazy in Texas. First of all, he got into a brawl with a bunch of guys in a beer garden and things got pretty wild. For some reason, Moore decided that he wanted to fight and it all went downhill quickly. One of the guys got Moore in a headlock so the other two could punch him.

Moore tried to chase the attackers, who fled the scene in a Porsche. He jumped on the car and threw punches through the sunroof. Incredibly, somebody even fired a gun. Fortunately, the weapon didn’t cause any injuries. Finally, the Cowboys released Moore a few days later, for ‘football-related reasons.’ Right.

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14. Polyana Viana

Don’t mess with an MMA fighter. It doesn’t matter if they’re male or female, they’ll probably still put a brutal beating on you. Unfortunately, you get some idiots who decide to randomly mug somebody. But if you pick on the wrong person, it’s going to end badly. That’s what happened to Polyana Viana’s would-be mugger, who wound up looking pretty dumb.

The Brazilian fighter is on the UFC roster and is more than capable of looking after herself. In short, an idiot tried to rob her and she responded with savage but justified violence. To sum up, using a cardboard cutout of a gun isn’t the best idea. Just don’t try mugging anybody and you’ll probably be ok.

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13. Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones

‘Pacman’ Jones is pure crazy. ‘Pacman’ has led a gloriously chaotic life, so it’s difficult to hone in on a single incident. However, we’re going to focus on the time he was attacked by an employee at Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson Airport. For some reason, a man decided to get physical with one of the wildest men in the NFL.

That was a bad move. Don’t shove and punch a crazy NFL player like Jones unless your name is Deontay Wilder. Jones didn’t start the fight, but he definitely finished it. To sum up, he landed a couple of punches and dropped the dazed employee. He didn’t get cited because it was self-defense and turned down medical attention afterwards.

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12. Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac

Premier League soccer players earn an outrageous amount of money and drive really nice cars. So it’s no surprise that thieves and criminals will mark them as targets. Mesut Ozil’s story is straight out of a John Wick movie. It’s got knife-wielding motorcyclists and a street fight.

When Ozil and his fellow Arsenal player Sead Kolasinac got out of the former’s Mercedes G-Wagon they could never have expected what would happen next. In short, two knife-wielding motorcyclists tried to rob them in broad daylight. They didn’t count on Kolasinac fighting back like the beast he is. Now you know why Arsenal fans call him ‘The Tank.’

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11. Scott Moore

One of the wildest stories on this list is that of Scott Moore. Police chased Moore for almost an hour in a high-speed pursuit with the rugby player refusing to slow down. The youngest Super Rugby League player of all time drove at speeds of 150 mph as he escaped from the cops. But it gets even crazier.

After they finally managed to intercept him, he attempted to fight them off. So they shot him with a 50,000-volt stun gun multiple times. However, Moore is massive so this didn’t stop him. In fact, he actually managed to snatch the gun off of one of the officers. He’s lucky that this was in the UK and not the States or he’d be shot. As it was, he served 23 months in prison.

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10. Tony Parker

Chris Brown is all sorts of trouble. Unfortunately for Tony Parker, he found out the hard way. The two were hanging out in a New York City nightclub in 2012 when a fight broke out. The San Antonio Spurs point guard found himself in the middle of the brawl and it could have ended very badly for him.

Parker got swiped across the eye, but it could have been much worse. Luckily, he only sustained a scratched cornea. Parker missed the start of the season, but it wasn’t the end of the world for him. He would recover and lead the Spurs to the NBA championship.

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9. Montae Nicholson

Oh, Mr. Nicholson what are we going to do with you? First of all, the Washington Redskins safety is a very controversial character. The 23-year-old came into the 2018 season as a starting player and things looked bright. However, following an assault and battery arrest, he wound up back on the reserve list.

Nicholson was outside a bar in Ashburn when he got into an altercation with a couple. Meanwhile, his friend, Sydney A. Maggiore, allegedly attacked the woman with a bottle and also assaulted the man. Despite video footage of the incident going viral, neither man faced any charges.

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8. Nick Diaz

Diaz is not a man to mess with. The UFC fighter has no patience for fake people and will fight back if you mess with him. Just a few days after his brother Nate fought Conor McGregor in Las Vegas, Nick had his own clash. Why would you want to mess with a professional fighter? It just doesn’t make sense.

In short, the former Strikeforce champion managed to fend off four assailants in the bathroom of a Las Vegas nightclub. “They got the worst of it,” Diaz said afterwards. Diaz was gashed across his forehead, but it didn’t bother him a little bit. Stockton.

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7. Ezekiel Elliott

24-year-old Ezekiel Elliott is immensely talented. The Dallas Cowboys running back is one of the most exciting players in the NFL today. So, if you were his coach, you definitely wouldn’t want him going near any of the city’s bars or nightclubs. Unfortunately, ‘Zeke’ wound up involved in a bar fight.

According to reports, a fight broke out in the Clutch Bar in Dallas in July 2017. A 30-year-old man wound up getting punched in the face with his nose smashed out of shape. However, Elliot escaped without any charges. But why would you want to mess with a massive NFL player anyway?

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6. Phil Bardsley

Premier League veteran Bardsley has been around the block. He started out with Manchester United but found his feet in the lower half of the division with teams like Sunderland, Stoke City, and now, Burnley. A very rugged, traditional defender, there’s not a lot of glamor to the veteran’s game.

Bardsley is also a volatile character. Now and again he gets himself into trouble. A massive fight broke out in an Ibiza hotel with Bardsley in the middle of it. Chairs and tables got flung across the room. Bardsley was held back by friends to prevent him from making the situation even worse. Burnley fined him for his behavior.

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5. BJ Penn

Penn was once on top of the MMA world. The former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion was brilliant in the early days of his career. However, those memories feel like a long time ago now. Penn has been involved in multiple unsavory incidents and is currently dealing with a custody battle for his children.

After his most recent barfight, his chances are looking slim. Penn got into a scrap with a shirtless dude outside a bar on Hawaii’s main island. ‘The Prodigy’ ate a huge left hook and was knocked out. Later, footage showed Penn choking the same guy. As a result, UFC President Dana White said the Hawaiian would never fight for the promotion again.

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4. LeSean McCoy

Fighting a cop is just a dumb move. However, LeSean McCoy thought differently. The Kansas City Chiefs running back found himself in hot water after an incident in a Philidelphia bar. McCoy had a full-on brawl over a champagne bottle with an off-duty police officer named Roland Butler.

After the bottle shattered on the floor, a big skirmish kicked off in the Recess Lounge in Philly. So much for the City of Brotherly Love, because Butler suffered broken ribs, a thumb, a broken nose, and several cuts. The attack cost McCoy $55,000. In short, punching a cop is an expensive hobby.

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3. Tyrone Crawford

This is one of the most recent incidents on this list. Crawford has represented the Dallas Cowboys with distinction. The big defensive end is a hero in Texas, where he’s played since 2012. But he also provided a major distraction for his team in the build-up to the 2019 NFL season.

Crawford got into a bar fight in Panama City Beach, Florida. He threw heavy haymakers in the brawl. Of course, you can’t get away with doing something like that. Consequently, Crawford had to do an anger management assessment and six months of probation. But it was probably worth it.

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2. Steven Gerrard

A Liverpool FC legend, Gerrard had a squeaky-clean reputation for the majority of his career. However, that all came to a head in 2008 when he got into a barfight. The incident took place in Southport, Merseyside. This is also a fine example of how a superstar can get away with misbehaving.

In short, Gerrard gave an uppercut to the DJ because he wouldn’t play his music. The pair eyeballed each other across the room and then got into a verbal confrontation. But then the former Liverpool captain punched the man, claiming he did so in self-defense. Consequently, the jury let him off the hook.

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1. Conor McGregor

MMA superstar McGregor just can’t stay out of trouble. The Irishman has even spent nights in jail after his involvement with a number of wild incidents. Earlier this year he smashed the phone of a fan who was annoying him outside of a nightclub. Finally, he punched an old man in a bar who didn’t want to drink his whiskey.

The former UFC champion’s most notorious incident saw him storm Brooklyn’s Barclay Center and toss a dolly through a bus window. Don’t forget about his involvement in post- and pre-fight brawls. One of the main reasons why fans love McGregor is because he is so volatile. But how much is too much?

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Star Athletes Who Fought Off The Field