Another Grand Canal bouncer punches somebody, but this time he says it was just one punch and only after the guy punched first

The Boston Licensing Board decides Thursday what action to take, if any, against the Grand Canal on Canal Street for a Jan. 14 incident that ended with a bouncer punching a patron.

In 2013, the bar had to answer charges that two bouncers stomped customers seriously enough to send them to the hospital - three months after one of those bouncers punched out another customer. After those incidents, bar owner David Murray told city officials he had brought in a new crew of especially mellow bouncers.

At a hearing today on the Jan. 14 incident, the bouncer admitted punching the man outside the bar. However, he said the man, after being escorted outside at closing time, began to try to force his way back inside. He said he had managed to get the guy up against a car parked on Canal, had let go and was starting to back away when the guy took a swing at him.

Bar attorney Stephen Miller asked him what he did next.

"I swung back," the bouncer acknowledged.

"Did you hit him?" Miller asked.

"Yes," he said, adding he was only trying to protect himself.

"Was it a reflex?" Miller asked.

"Yes," he said.

Under questioning from Miller, another bar employer who said he witnessed the incident said the bouncer threw a single punch and that it "wasn't a wind-up, haymaker punch whatsoever."

Their accounts differed dramatically from statements made by the patron's friends to police - that the bouncer put the man in a chokehold, which caused him to pass out, at which time the bouncer dropped him and he hit his head on the pavement, causing him to bleed from both his face and the back of his head.

A police officer testified that he found the man down the street from the bar and that he seemed "highly intoxicated." He said the man did not have signs of bleeding from either the back or front of his head. He did have a swollen lip, however, the officer told the board.