MMA prospect accused of almost killing a man during brutal street fight

According to Joseph Hosey of the Joliet Patch Michael ‘Wardog’ Reid was released from jail on Monday on a $500,000 bond. The 22-year-old resident of Minooka, IL - a suburb of Chicago - had been incarcerated since March 4th after his alleged role in a street-fight that left one man in hospital, fighting for his life.

Michael Reid is a boxer, Muay Thai, and MMA fighter who, according to his instagram profile, holds an amateur boxing and Muay Thai record of 130-6 and pro record of 2-0. A Junior Olympic and Silver Gloves-level boxer, Reid has competed at Illinois based-promotions Cut Throat MMA and Supreme Promotions (who in 2014 offered $5,000 to anyone willing to ‘challenge’ Reid to a Muay Thai contest).

In an interview with MoreMMA.com, a 19-year-old Reid stated that he was a student of Carlson Gracie, as well as Joe Bennett; a boxer who boxed on the same USA Olympic team as Muhammad Ali. In that same interview Reid also claimed to be a personal trainer at Clay Guida’s MMAStop Fitness gym in Crest Hill, IL. That gym has not responded to Bloody Elbow’s request for clarification on Reid’s current employment status.

Along with personal training, Reid had worked as a bouncer at BBQ-joint/country music club Skooter’s Roadhouse in Shorewood, IL, an hour west of Chicago. According to Brian Stanley of The Herald-News, as Skooter’s was closing at around 3am on February 28th, Reid and his brother, Nicholas Ventsias, 26, became involved in a verbal altercation with two other men. It is reported that the two unnamed men left the scene in a vehicle to ‘avoid confrontation’, but were followed by Reid and Ventsias to a nearby Burger King restaurant. There, it is alleged, that Reid and Ventsias attacked the two men, leaving one of them unconscious. Shorewood Police Chief Aaron Klima stated that the man who was rendered unconscious was left with “potentially life-threatening” injuries. According to Klima, Shorewood Police have both witness statements and video surveillance pertaining to the incident.

Court documents show that Reid has been charged with robbery, three counts of aggravated battery, three counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, and one count of mob action. In Illinois, a single count of aggravated assault, if designated a Class 1 felony, is punishable by four to fifteen years imprisonment. Nicholas Ventsias, who has remained in custody on a $375,000 bond, was charged with six counts of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, an additional count of aggravated battery, and two counts of mob action. Both men are due in court for a pretrial hearing on August 18th.

Both Michael Reid and Nicholas Ventsias are considered innocent until proven guilty.