Soccer Legend Diego Maradona Denies Abusing Ex-Girlfriend Rocio Oliva After Shocking Video Surfaces

"I swear to you that I've never hit a woman," the 53-year-old athlete told an Argentine reporter

Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona is coming to his own defense after a shocking video, in which he appears to strike his former fiancée Rocio Oliva, surfaced online. 

The 53-year-old athlete, who is regarded by many as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, insists he never laid a hand on Oliva, despite the seemingly violent clip. 

The video, which originally aired on the Argentine TV program Nosotros al Mediodía, shows Maradona yelling at his former girlfriend, who is not on camera in the clip, before he appears to lunge at Oliva, who secretly filmed the attack on her cellphone. He slurs his words and screams, "Continue looking at the phone, you!" while Oliva can be heard pleading for Maradona to stop in the background. 

After the clip began making the Internet rounds, the former World Cup winner fought back against the backlash and denied hitting his former girlfriend in an interview with an Argentine journalist Marina Calabró. 

"Yes, I threw her phone away, but I swear to you that I've never hit a woman," he insists. "The episode starts and ends there. I take responsibility for throwing her phone but there isn't more. The situation didn't happen and wasn't more serious than that."

He also told Calabró that he "knew the video existed" and "understands that the edit of the situation may look confusing," adding that he threw the cell out of Oliva's hands after he discovered she was taping him.

This isn't the first time Maradona has made headlines for an eyebrow-raising outburst. In August, he reportedly slapped a journalist for winking at then girlfriend Veronica Ojeda in his native Argentina. 

The video comes on heels of a series of headline-making sports scandals in the United States. Just last month, TMZ posted an alarming video of former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Rice punching his wife-to-be Janay Palmer, which caused the team to terminate his contract with the NFL. 

And just four days later, Minnesota vikings star Adrian Peterson was indicted on a charge of reckless or negligent injury to a child in Texas, leading to his indefinite suspension from all team activities.