Justin Bieber gets into a fistfight: ‘Not a scratch on this pretty boy’

Justin Bieber is now a pretty boy with a pretty respectable punch. Or is he the same punk who lunged at insolent paparazzi a few years back in London, only without as many bodyguards to hold him back?

The “Love Yourself” singer got into a quick and dirty brawl that was captured on video Wednesday night outside his hotel in downtown Cleveland, where he was in town to see the Cavs’ Game 3 win against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

A slow-mo look at the footage, which was obtained by TMZ, seems to reveal the other guy – a bigger dude in a ball cap – making first contact, shoving the 22-year-old on the left side of the face.

Bieber comes back swinging with a right before being wrangled to the ground by the guy, who on second glance looks even bigger than he did in the first place.

------------

FOR THE RECORD:

June, 10, 8:50 a.m.: An earlier version of this article story described two men having made contact with Bieber. Only one man was involved, first while wearing a hat and then with his hat knocked off.

------------

Bieber was wearing a Cavaliers shirt and his team had just blown out the visiting Warriors, but information out Friday seems to indicate the NBA rivalry wasn’t at issue.

Though the video doesn’t make clear exactly how the fight started, TMZ reported Friday that Lamont Richmond, the big guy involved, said he approached Bieber to ask if his two female friends could get an autograph and a photo, and was subsequently on the receiving end of rude name-calling and a bad attitude. And regarding who made contact first? Richmond said Bieber got “puffed up” at him and took a swing, according to TMZ.

Bieber, of course, recently announced he is “done” taking pictures with fans. “I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity,” he said on Instagram in May.

Around midday Thursday, the Biebs piped up on Instagram, posting a shirtless picture of his tattooed self making a fist and staring all dreamy-eyed into the camera, accompanied by the delicious caption, “Not a scratch on this pretty boy.” Alas, the photo has since been deleted.

To think, it was only a year ago that Bieber was posing, ripped, on the cover of Men’s Health and discussing his then-rep as a scrapper.

“Maybe that’s like a cover-up for me not being tough,” he told the magazine. “Like the tattoos and stuff? Maybe that’s like a cover for me being a softy.”

A rep for Bieber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ

UPDATES:

June 10, 8:50 a.m.: This article has been was updated to include additional information about the man who approached Bieber.

This story was originally published on June 9 at 2:40 p.m..