The man who was punched in the face by Joe Schilling at a bar on Sunday is now planning to press charges against the MMA fighter … TMZ Sports has confirmed.
The alleged victim, identified as 31-year-old Justin Balboa, has gone to police and will cooperate with prosecutors as he pursues a battery charge, his attorney, Robert Solomon, tells us.
“I cannot believe [Schilling] thought it was OK to just haul off and crack somebody twice like that,” Solomon says. “[Schilling] is lucky we’re not dealing with a manslaughter case.”
In video of the incident, you can see Balboa got rocked in the head multiple times by Schilling on Sunday night at a bar in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
The footage showed Schilling — who last fought professionally in 2019 for Bellator — whaled on Balboa after the two had bumped into each other in a walkway near the bar area.
In police docs, cops say Balboa told them he had no idea why Schilling hit him.
Schilling, meanwhile, claims Balboa had been bothering him and others all night … and says he only hit Balboa out of self-defense.
“I was scared for my life,” Schilling added.
In the docs, officers say a witness told them it appeared the confrontation all went down because Balboa “had possibly made an improper remark” about Schilling’s significant other.
Solomon, though, tells us he believes his client did nothing to deserve the punches … saying, “The video clearly shows another story.”
“The reality of it is is this guy took this way too far,” Solomon said of Schilling.
Solomon also says he’ll be filing a civil lawsuit against Schilling later this week … adding that his client suffered a head injury and facial wounds in the altercation.
We’ve reached out to Schilling for further comment, but so far, no word back yet.
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