Bellator MMA Veteran Joe Schilling Granted Immunity From 2021 Bar Altercation

Combat sports veteran Joe Schilling has scored his most recent victory not in a ring or cage, but in court.

Schilling was involved in an altercation with a bar patron named Justin Balboa in June 2021, which ended with the Bellator MMA and Glory Kickboxing veteran knocking out the man at a bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Balboa filed a civil lawsuit against Schilling for battery after being hospitalized with a head injury. After widely-distributed videos showed the bar altercation, Schilling claimed the man he hit provoked him with threatening gestures after using a racial slur toward a bar employee. Nearly two years after the events, Schilling’s actions have been declared as an act of self-defense by Broward County circuit court judge Fabienne E. Fahnestock. “Stich ‘Em Up” was justified to use the necessary to neutralize the threat according to Florida’s stand-your-ground law.

The 39-year-old Schilling expressed happiness on his social media accounts, stating he refuses “to be bullied” by anyone.

“I’m glad it’s finally over. For the last two years my name and character has been disparaged in the media, seem like everyone loves the narrative that a professional fighter just beat up some innocent person, which was [so] not the case. Most people told me to just settle it and pay him off as that would be easier. I don’t like [bullies] and I refuse to be bullied by anyone. The ambulance chasing crumb bum of a lawyer he hired threatened to ruin me financially and well the only person he financially ruined was his client. I just hope that all of the news outlets that were so quick to post click bait articles assassinating my character have the same energy now that the truth is out. Justin Balboa is and will always be a f***ing loser.”

In his career, Schilling piled up a 23-9 professional kickboxing record and a 4-6 record in mixed martial arts. Among other accomplishments, Schilling won the Glory Kickboxing middleweight tournament in 2013.