Former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jan Blachowicz has issued a threat aimed at West Ham United and French international footballer, Kurt Zouma, after video footage emerged this Tuesday morning of the center back kicking his pet cat around his kitchen, as well as slapping the Bengal cat and throwing a pair of shoes at it.
Blachowicz, who is currently sidelined after suffering a neck and spinal injury ahead of a March UFC Columbus main event against Aleksandar Rakic, was subsequently forced to withdraw from the main event clash.
The Polish striker headlined UFC 267 in October of last year in Abu Dhabi, UAE – suffering a one-sided second round rear-naked choke loss against Glover Teixeira in a championship outing.
Jan Blachowicz successfully defended his title once in March last year with a win over Israel Adesanya
However, Jan Blachowicz issued a warning to former Chelsea and Everton defender, Zouma this afternoon, urging him to attempt to kick him like he did his cat, as the latter continues to find himself on the receiving end of mass criticism amid the emergence of an animal abuse video.
“If you are such a tough mother****er, @KurtZouma, try to kick me,” Jan Blachowicz tweeted. “What a piece of sh*t. No tolerance for animal cruelty.”
Despite the emergence of the aforenoted video footage, Zouma has still started for West Ham United for the club’s Premier League clash with Watford.
Zouma released an official statement detailing how he was “deeply sorry” following the attack, and claimed that both family cats are “perfectly fine and healthy”.
“I also want to say how deeply sorry I am to anyone who was upset by the video,” Kurt Zouma said. “I would like to assure everyone that our two cats are perfectly fine and healthy. They are loved and cherished by our entire family, and this behaviour was an isolated incident that will not happen again.”
In an official statement released by West Ham United Football Club, the London-based outfit confirmed that they were dealing with the issue internally, whilst manager, David Moyes insisted that Zouma was “one of our better players” amid his start tonight against Watford despite the incident.
“West Ham United unreservedly condemns the actions of our player Kurt Zouma, in the video that has circulated,” The statement read. “We have spoken to Kurt and will be dealing with the matter internally, but we would like to make it clear that we in no way condone cruelty towards animals.”