Justin Bieber’s Cleveland Beat-Down Started Over An Autograph (UPDATE)
Yesterday, we were gifted with a schadenfreude-filled video of Justin Bieber flexing like the hardest toddler at the indoor playground while attempting to fight a stranger in Cleveland after game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. The circumstances of the fight were all kinds of vague; all we really knew was that Justin went for a dude three times his size and got laid the fuck out. Well, the dude who whooped his ass has spoken about the situation and has filled in the blanks for us.
According to TMZ, the guy who got into it with Bieber is a 6’5″ Cleveland local named Lamont Richmond. Lamont did some explaining on Facebook shortly after the video came out, and he claims that it all started after he asked Bieber for an autograph. We all know Justin is no longer a fan of taking pictures, but apparently he’s also not here for autographs either. Lamont claims he responded to his request by hissing: “No autographs tonight, motherfucker.”
Lamont also claims that Justin reeked of booze and puffed out his chest before taking a swing at him. Lamont clearly had enough of Bieber’s shit and decided to shut it down by laying him out. However, Lamont maintains he was only “restraining” Bieber; he claims if he had actually fought back, we’d be listening to bagpipes playing a sad version of “The Backyardigans” theme song at Bieber’s funeral right now.
The situation gets even messier. TMZ says they’ve been told that Lamont has met with a lawyer and plans on suing Justin Bieber. “The line starts behind me” said the woman suing Justin and Skrillex for ripping her off. As for what exactly he plans on suing Justin Bieber over, nobody knows. My guess is that whatever the reason, it’s followed by the words “…and I would like a lot of money, please.”
The most WTF part of this story is that a grown-ass man wanted an autograph from Justin Bieber. Like, what was he going to do with Justin Bieber’s autograph? Put it in his bratty pop star scrapbook? Frame it and hang it on a wall in his den? I’m starting to think Justin Bieber might have did him a favor. If getting into a brawl with a pocket-sized toddler-faced Canadian singer over a sample of his signature isn’t a “Look at your life, look at your choices” message from the universe, I don’t know what is.
UPDATE: Even though he uploaded a Facebook video talking about getting into a fight with Justin Bieber over an autograph, Lamont Richmond is now telling TMZ that that isn’t him in the video fighting Bieber. He also says he was lying in that Facebook video. Uh huh. Who knows if either of those claims have anything to do with the fact that he also claims he has been getting death threats from Justin’s army of rabid fans and that he has been fired from his job. Probably totally unrelated, right? No word on what’s happening with that lawsuit, but I’m assuming it’s not going to happen.
Pic: Splash