Simin Wang/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Retired blended martial artist Phil Baroni has been arrested in Mexico for allegedly killing his girlfriend, native prosecutors stated Wednesday.
The previous UFC fighter, 46, was detained after a girl was discovered lifeless on Jan. 1 within the seashore resort of San Francisco, the prosecutors’ workplace in Nayarit state stated. In line with the Tribuna de la Bahia outlet, Baroni sought officers’ assist and informed them his girlfriend had slipped and hit her head after he had thrown her right into a bathe within the wake of an argument.
Inside a room at a neighborhood resort, officers discovered a unadorned girl coated by a sheet with seen indicators of bruising on her face and round her physique, the report stated. It added that she displayed no important instances by the point regulation enforcement arrived.
In a press release on Twitter, the Nayarit prosecutors’ workplace on Wednesday stated that an American, “Philip ‘N’,” had been detained for the crime of “aggravated femicide.” A state official later confirmed his surname as Baroni, the Related Press stories, including that an preliminary listening to within the case has been scheduled for Monday.
Baroni, referred to as “The New York Badass,” first fought within the UFC in 2001 and continued combating professionally in a number of different MMA organizations together with Bellator and Strikeforce over the following twenty years.
His most up-to-date MMA battle got here in 2019 on the Insurgent Combating Championship in Shanghai, China, a contest which he misplaced by submission within the first spherical in opposition to Sai Wang.
In 2019, Baroni additionally took half in knowledgeable wrestling occasion, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport, in New Jersey. “The information about Phil Baroni is horrible and extremely tragic as nicely,” Barnett, who additionally fought within the UFC, tweeted on Wednesday. “I’ve identified Phil for two a long time + and on the 1st JB Bloodsport present may see that his persona and conduct was erratic, displaced, and emotionally he was in all places and it was apparent why: CTE,” Barnett added.
Barnett stated managing Baroni on the occasion had been so troublesome that he couldn’t guide him once more, though he needed to. “He was an excessive amount of to deal with and so scattered,” he added. “He blew up at me as a result of I hadn’t used him once more and I blocked him on social media however there wasn’t a lot I may do.”
Baroni’s arrest in Mexico comes after UFC President Dana White apologized this week after he was filmed hitting his spouse, Anne, within the face in a Cabo San Lucas nightclub on New 12 months’s Eve. After TMZ revealed a video of the incident, White stated he was embarrassed and stated each he and his spouse have been drunk on the time.
“You’ve heard me say for years, ‘There’s by no means ever an excuse for a man to place his palms on a girl,’ and now right here I'm on TMZ speaking about it,” White informed the outlet.