Australian women’s bantamweight Jessica-Rose Clark recently opened up on social media about an abusive relationship with fellow fighter Julian Wallace. She has since left the relationship.
Wallace, who changed his name from Julian Dean Rabaud, had formerly been best known as the guy with the facial tattoos who gets in his opponent’s face and then gets karma KOed.
Via Clark’s Social Network:
I’m not entirely sure what to write.
This is something that I have struggled with being able to speak about over the last couple of months. Until my close friends and family encouraged me to be open about it in the hope of not only helping the women in this man’s future, but other women, men, and children who are being subjected to situations like this or worse.
It has only been a few short months and one of the hardest things for me to come to terms with, is the fact that the man I was so head over heels in love with, and who professed to be madly in love with me in return, could act the way he did. And I was too stupid to leave. I was too in love to leave. I truly believed things would get better.
They got worse.
It saddens me that this particular incident had to happen before I finally found the courage to leave. And it saddens me that I was still so caught in his spell, that I still went back multiple times to see him even after it happened. I still told him I loved him and I even considered trying to make it work again. 5th time is a charm, right?
I am BLESSED to have had beautiful friends and my family for me to lean on whenever I was feeling tempted by his beautiful words and his sweet actions. They always reminded me of where I had come from.
I had to leave the country to break free of his spell completely.
I saw him 3 days before I left for America. He begged me to come say goodbye to him and I did. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. I had to leave. I haven’t spoken to him or contacted him since.
I am so grateful for the support network that I had and have around me because without it, I might still be caught in that trap. Thank you to everyone who has been there for me through every threat, every fight, every hit, every time I was made to feel like I was nothing and nobody would ever love me or want me the way he did.
The reason I came out so publicly about this is because it TERRIFIES me to think that if someone like myself, a professional fighter, can get so deeply caught in such a toxic and hurtful situation, and knowing how hard it is to break free of their hold on you, then what hope is there for the women, men and children who don’t have the physical ability to not only defend themselves but remove themselves from the situation.
I am urging everyone, PLEASE don’t ever feel like you are alone. There are people everywhere who will help you. I will help you. Msg me any time of the day or night and I will be here.
I wasn’t alone, no matter how degraded and isolated I was, I realized I was never alone.
You are not alone.
There is a reflexive reaction by some to stories of domestic violence – an assumption that there is his side, her side, and then the truth somewhere confusingly in the middle. If Ms. Clark’s side is insufficiently compelling, consider the court’s side.
Last week Wallace pled guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and intentionally choking with recklessness for the April 28 attack. He will be sentenced on December 7.
The ordeal began when Clark had been running 15 minutes late on her way home from work after she stopped to pick up some noodles. When she arrived home, Wallace became enraged that she brought the wrong food, and accused her of being unfaithful.
“He started attacking me, it went on for about 20 minutes, he kicked me in the head with Timberland boots on,” said Ms. Clark to Freya Noble for the Daily Mail.
“He got me in a Muay Thai clinch in the kitchen and was elbowing me in the face. He was holding my head in one hand and hitting me with the other.”
“I was terrified, I really was, I’ve never been knocked out and I’ve never passed out before. I remember seeing stars and getting dropped onto the bed. When he was choking me I could feel myself losing consciousness.”
“I kept tapping him on the arm because I could feel that I was going to lose consciousness; he pulled tighter and I thought that would be the end.”
Clark managed to free herself from the choke, knocked Wallace out with a kick, and then called the police.
“If I wasn’t in an industry where I do get hit every day and I can brace myself against impact I’d hate to think what would have happened,’ said Ms. Clark.
“I was terrified for my own life and I do this for a living.”
Clark has moved to the USA to pursue her MMA dreams. Wallace is in a relationship with UFC women’s bantamweight Ashlee Evans-Smith, who has apparently moved to Australia.
