Diego Brandao admitted to having a gun, but said what he did was in self-defense.
The former UFC fighter's interrogation video with Albuquerque Police Department officers was obtained and released by TMZ on Thursday. Brandao was arrested last month on four felony counts, including assault with great bodily harm and assault with a deadly weapon.
"I don't want to f*ck up my life," Brandao told cops.
Brandao, 28, is being accused of coming back to a strip club with a gun after getting kicked out. Witnesses said Brandao punched multiple individuals and pistol-whipped a club employee.
On the video, Brandao tells police that someone from the club was trying to choke him and one of them also had a gun. The Brazilian fighter said he has been to that strip club, called Knockouts, on multiple occasions without incident, including with teammate B.J. Penn. Brandao said club employees "tried to fight" Penn at one point.
"I'm not a criminal," Brandao said. "I never got in trouble there. We go there all the time."
Brandao said the gun doesn't belong to him and he broke it up into multiple pieces and threw it away, so the cops won't find it.
Brandao is currently out on $15,000 bond and is awaiting the Bernalillo County District Attorney's office to decide whether or not to bring the case to a grand jury.
On April 28, two weeks after the arrest, Brandao was released by the UFC. He's also currently facing a suspension from the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) for failing a drug test for marijuana.
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