clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Morning Report: Matt Serra details how he gave ‘drunk’ a ‘free jiu-jitsu lesson’ night before Hall of Fame induction

UFC Hall Of Fame: Official Class Of 2018 Induction Ceremony Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Last week, Matt Serra made headlines for more than just his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame. The night before the ceremony, Serra got into an altercation with a drunk man in a Las Vegas restaurant, harmlessly subduing the man before security intervened.

On the UFC Unfiltered podcast Monday, Serra discussed how the situation came to be, explaining that he and his family were attempting to leave the restaurant when the man confronted him, threatening to fight the former UFC welterweight champion. When the situation was close to getting out of hand, Serra said he took action in the most gentle way possible.

“We’re eating at the cafe and this couple comes in that’s out of their mind drunk,” Serra said. “She passed out the second she was in there. He left, came back, left, but the he started getting really, really nasty to the staff. Cursing, just totally drunk, loud, obnoxious, rude. Then he starts throwing stuff at the waiter as he’s walking by and yelling to the point where everybody is stopping and looking. . .

“I was almost out of there! I was almost in the clear. My waiter is bringing me the check and then he gets up and he goes after my waiter - just a drunk moron and he has his fists clinched. He was throwing s**t at the other waiter, now he’s facing me and my family. So he’s drunk and something’s gonna happen. This guy is hitting him or he’s gonna throw something and my family is behind me, so I stood up and then he directed everything towards me the second I stood up. ‘You! I’ll fight you!’

“So he took his shirt off and the second he took his shirt off, I don’t know if he went to swing but I just neutralized that s**t. I stepped right in, got him around his waist - my wife, she goes, ‘When you went in I thought that you were gonna slam him. You let him down so gently!’ Dude, he just, like, melted when I grabbed him. He folded to jelly. so I got him around the waist, basic takedown. I gave him a free jiu-jitsu lesson.

“I put him on the ground, I mounted him. His mount defense, his elbow escape and his trap and roll were not there. So then the second I got him down I told my sister to film this. So you got it from there and you saw the rest.”

Serra posted the video of the altercation that his sister shot to his Instagram account where it quickly went viral, racking up over 10 million views.

In the end, the situation was resolved cleanly, Serra said. No harm came to anyone, the unknown man was escorted away in handcuffs, and Serra doesn’t believe the man will follow up on his threat to sue. Looking back on it, Serra is happy with the way he handled the situation because even though the guy may have deserved to get hit, at the end of the day, that would have been a far worse outcome for the newly inducted Hall of Famer.

“I took him down, I got a bigger applause then I did in my first GSP fight,” Serra laughed. “The audience erupted. They were still clapping by the time my sister started filming because that dude was as obnoxious as you can get. Yelling, screaming, making a scene, being vulgar. Total f**king d**khead.

“Even though he deserves to get smacked or something, the loser goes to the hospital and the winner goes to jail. I know there was no winning in beating up this guy but he definitely needed to be subdued because he was gonna hit somebody.”


MUST-READ STORIES

Return. Daniel Cormier gives update on hand injury, timetable for return.

He’s back. USADA: Brock Lesnar back in drug-testing pool, eligible to fight again in January.

Rematch? Stipe Miocic asks Daniel Cormier for rematch.

Yes Man. Brian Ortega says he stands by decision not to fight at UFC 226: ‘I’m no yes man.’

Fear. Francis Ngannou releases statement about UFC 226 performance.

Dropped. Charges dropped against Volkan Oezdemir in felony battery case.


VIDEO STEW

Fight Motion.

Free fight.

The Daddest Man on the Planet celebrating his big win.

Felder taking you through his injuries.

TTTHS.

Chael got remixed.

The cartoon version of UFC 226.


LISTEN UP

The MMA Hour. Interviews with Cormier, Gustafsson, and Cruz.

Anik & Florian. Recapping UFC 226 and Cormier’s historic win.


SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Ngannou statement.

Respect.

Jon finally speaks.

Ronda making moves.

More respect.

Talking that ish.

On brand.

Apparently Derek was just playing around before.

Congrats, Gary.

Sage is comically cut.

Diaz bros still out here.

Bossin

A post shared by natediaz209 (@natediaz209) on


FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

N/A.


TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2016: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Don Frye, Bob Meyrowitz were all inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. Also that evening, Mark Coleman’s heavyweight title fight with Pete Williams was inducted into the classic fights wing.


FINAL THOUGHTS

Josh is an exceptional writer and I highly recommend reading this.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.


EXIT POLL

Poll

What are your thoughts on DC vs. Brock?

This poll is closed

  • 37%
    I love it.
    (606 votes)
  • 12%
    I hate it.
    (208 votes)
  • 10%
    I’m indifferent.
    (163 votes)
  • 40%
    I understand it and it doesn’t bother me but I’d prefer something else.
    (653 votes)
1630 votes total Vote Now

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram, and like us on Facebook.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for the MMA Fighting Daily Roundup newsletter!

A daily roundup of all your fighting news from MMA Fighting