Boom! Curtis Woodhouse just scored a knockout blow for every athlete who's ever been harassed by sports trolls on Twitter.
The English boxer lost his country's light welterweight title to Shayne Singleton on Friday. Two days later, a troll using the handle @jimmyob88 began taunting Woodhouse, calling him a "complete disgrace," "laughable joke" and "waste of spunk." Woodhouse (at left in the photo above) initially replied with some trash talk of his own, then took matters into his own hands in a way not yet done by anyone in the sports world's growing list of trolled pros.
Sports trolls have become a growing problem on Twitter over the past several months as death threats and abuse have grown less and less shocking. NBA star Pau Gasol, NFL player Kyle Williams and broadcaster Erin Andrews are just a few recent victims of particularly harsh treatment. Some even see ugly fan behavior as a threat to the platform's viability with athletes and sports celebrities.
But perhaps if more folks took the Woodhouse approach, sports fans would calm down. After growing tired of the banter, Woodhouse made an offer to his thousands of followers:
The troll had a smart reply, to which Woodhouse replied cryptically:
Soon enough, Woodhouse appeared to have figured out the troll's street of residence:
This got the troll's attention:
@woodhousecurtis chill out pal i was only doing it so you would bite back it was only abit of harmless fun
— the master (@jimmyob88) March 11, 2013
Woodhouse promised to give the troll a "right pasting," asked followers for information on his house number and made an additional promise to both the troll and his followers:
This certainly got the troll's attention:
@woodhousecurtis@wit_xx i was only joking about Didnt think you would be bothered thought you would take them as a joke
— the master (@jimmyob88) March 11, 2013
But the torment didn't stop there — Woodhouse soon tweeted a photo from the troll's apparent street:
Then Woodhouse called him out:
This got the troll's attention even more, and seemed to induce a bit of a panic:
@woodhousecurtis i am sorry its getting abit out of hand i am in the wrong i accept that
— the master (@jimmyob88) March 11, 2013
Woodhouse then said he got a call from someone who knew the troll and that the troll was begging mercy. But it seems a bit more knowledge of how Twitter works could have saved Woodhouse a lot of time and effort:
But that didn't stop him from having some more fun at the troll's expense:
He also used the moment to make a more general point about bullying:
