Sam Newman slams Ricky Nixon after Somerville dust up

Sam Newman has told his side of the story about why he slapped Ricky Nixon across the face last week and whether he thinks their friendship can be repaired.

Sam Newman has spoken of his dust up with Ricky Nixon. Picture: David Crosling

Sam Newman has admitted to slapping Ricky Nixon across the face and shoving him after the controversial former play agent made a headbutting motion in his direction over a spat regarding speaking fees in Somerville.

The Somerville stand off blew up last Friday after Newman had been booked by Nixon to appear at a function held at the Somerville Cricket Clubrooms.

Following Newman’s presentation at the event, the pair ended up out the back of the building having a dust up, with the former Footy Show great confirming he had given Nixon a whack.

“It was a bitch slap, yes,” Newman told Ben Fordham on his You Cannot Be Serious podcast on Wednesday.

“I did push him, yes.”

Sam Newman said he will ‘disassociate’ from Ricky Nixon. Picture: David Crosling

Ricky Nixon’s friendship with Sam Newman is on the rocks. Picture: Supplied

Newman said the altercation was “a delicate matter over a question of integrity” adding he was disappointed in his reaction and would “disassociate” from Nixon going forward.

“If I bury the hatchet it will be in his neck,” he said.

“It probably won’t happen again because Mr Nixon won’t be advocating my services because we will probably disassociate ourselves forever from any contractual arrangements.”

He said he was still waiting for Nixon to pay him the outstanding money from Friday.

Newman said he and Nixon ended up fighting when he discovered what Nixon paid him on the day was less than what the pair had agreed to.

“I was engaged to speak at a function and there was a contractual amount that I was to be given because this was a professional speaking engagement,” Newman said.

“I should have smelt a rat because just at the end of when I was speaking Mr Nixon gave a third party an envelope with what my stipend was and the third party, quite reasonably, counted the stipend because this third party did not want to be accused, if it was short, of pilfering the money herself.

“She came back to me and said ‘I don’t think this is what we agreed on,’ because I had a text of the amount that he had (negotiated).

Ricky Nixon and Sam Newman, with Billy Brownless, in happier times. Pic: Rosanna Faraci

“I suggested to him that this is not quite as our agreement stood and he said no I had misunderstood what the agreement was.

“I said, ‘have I? I hope I can read clearly, but it says here’ and I read out the text that he had sent me.

“So that is how it developed.”

Newman asked Nixon to step outside so they could speak in private and things turned physical.

“Mr Nixon came up very close to my face and, in fact, his nose almost touched mine and I pushed him back because that was stepping into my space . and then he motioned to headbutt me, which was exactly the reason why I gave him a poke on the side of the bonce,” he said.

“I don’t know if someone made a motion to headbutt you, but that is quite a scary thing because if they make contact with you it can break your nose.

“I am not saying he had an intention to headbutt me, but you don’t know that when someone goes through that motion.

“Having just had a shoulder reconstruction I was not able to deliver the right that I normally would have, so I poked out a left jab, just a glancing blow on the side (of his face), because it scared me.”

Don Scott and Sam Newman host the You Cannot Be Serious podcast. Picture: Instagram

Dane Swan and Ricky Nixon often appear at events together. Picture: Instagram

Newman said his friendship with Nixon was under a cloud.

“At my later stages of life if I am provoked over a simple contractual agreement and arrangement which seems to be broken, if I am forced into having a physical altercation with someone, I don’t think it is probably a healthy relationship to continue,” he said.

“I would not want it to happen again because I was more disappointed with myself that I did that.

“I thought ‘what is going on in my life?’, so it’s best to disassociate myself with people who put you in that position.”

Newman said he was surprised Nixon wanted to teach Don Scott how to deal with him. Newman recently yelled at Scott on the You Cannot Be Serious podcast and Scott has taken time off from the show.

“Could I advise anyone listening to this (podcast) the difference between Mr Scott and Mr Nixon is that Mr Scott is an ethical, moral, honest, trustworthy friend,” Newman said.

“No matter what has happened between us he will always be a friend of mine, Mr Scott.

“That is probably the difference between Mr Scott and any other people I know at this stage.

“So when he (Nixon) says he is happy to help me work out how I get on with Mr Scott, I would suggest he concentrates his efforts in other areas.”