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LAPORTE — Two people dressed as scary clowns preyed on the wrong man Tuesday night, according to the man's story. The victim's fighting skills caused LaPorte police searching for the suspects to check the hospital.

"If he's not in the hospital right now from everything that I've done to him, then he's hurting really bad," Matthew Cox said Thursday when interviewed about his encounter with two people wearing masks and dressed in checkered clown outfits.

Cox, 24, told police he was walking in the 1200 block of Andrew Avenue on the city's west side about 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Two clowns, including one dragging his leg and holding a sledge hammer, started to approach "like zombies," he said.

The clowns, believed to be males, were also yelling profanities at him, he said. That led Cox, an experienced cage match fighter trained in martial arts, to crouch into a fighting stance.

Cox said one of the clowns was running "like a freight train" straight toward him when he knocked the subject to the ground with a punch.

The fallen clown pulled a knife, but Cox grabbed him by the wrist and knocked the blade out of his hand while continuing the pummeling. The other clown took off running, police said.