UFC legend Chuck Liddell has explained why he tried to intervene in the George Floyd protests in California this past weekend.

The protests across the United States have largely been peaceful, but the escalation of violence in some areas of the country has been well documented. Part of this has been due to looters, whereas police brutality has also played a leading role.

After he was filmed trying to stop things from turning violent in Huntington Beach, Liddell spoke about exactly what happened during a recent interview with MMA Fighting.

“I’m all for protesting,” Liddell said. “You want to protest, whether I believe what you do or not, I support your right to protest. These [protests], I get it. I think anyone that has watched [the George Floyd video], it’s hard to watch.”

Liddell then shared his reaction to the initial video of George Floyd being killed. 

“I hadn’t heard what happened at first and then I see it and I was watching it like ‘hold on, guys, get your knee off him’ and at that point I didn’t know he died,” Liddell said. “Watching it like are they going to stop? Is nobody going to say anything? Watching it in disbelief. So I understand the anger but violence begets violence. It’s not going to solve anything. I just did my best to keep people safe.”

“I went down to see what was going on and try to keep the peace a little bit,” Liddell added. “Try to keep people level headed. I was able to talk some people down and I heard some crazy stuff from all sides. It was crazy.”

While Liddell understands the root of these protests, he also understands the fear of looting and vandalism. 

“I understand the people were there to defend their city,” Liddell said. “They didn’t want their city destroyed over this. They didn’t want people coming in from out of town and ripping down the city. It was one of those wild situations where there were bullies that try to pick on the easy targets. Not necessarily the big burly guy that looks pretty tough. They tend to bully on the smaller guy. They tend to pick on people. I can’t watch that.”

“I made it down there to see what was going on and I couldn’t leave,” Liddell added. “I needed to help out and try to help people on both sides. I wanted to help people with their businesses and the people who were there to speak their mind, I didn’t want to see them get hurt either.

“A lot of these businesses [being vandalized], they are on your side. They’re not hurting people that are hurting you.”

What do you think of this explanation from Chuck Liddell?