Taylor claims he was provoked by Metcalfe

The man who punched Jesse Metcalfe outside a Hollywood nightclub on Thursday has insisted that he was provoked by the actor.

Jesse was chatting to actress Taryn Manning outside the Boulevard 3 club shortly before he was involved in an altercation with her boyfriend Mams Taylor.

Taylor, a British rapper, has claimed that the former Desperate Housewives star started the fight and he was simply acting in self-defence when he knocked Metcalfe to the ground.

"Of course I'd rather the incident did not take place," Taylor told OK! "But Jesse was arrogant, insulting and unnecessarily very rude to me as well as my girlfriend. I was also physically attacked first before I defended myself."