So there's this guy that goes to the bar my friend and I frequently goes to.

He's a bully, pretty big, and is notorious for fighting in bars and other places, almost got into a lawsuit for injuring others and went to the police several time for similar offenses.

Recently, he seemed to have picked me as the new target, he will come and try to shove me for no reason at all, I react by telling him to back off. He then tries other stuff including grabbing me physically and push me around, again, for no reason at all.

Telling him to stop doesn't work, and I'm going to the same bar tomorrow, I assume he will try the same thing if not some worse action.

I'll bring brass knuckles with me and I'm ready to fuck him up real good if things do get worse, however, this would be the last resort as fighting over this is incredibly stupid with major legal consequences. I'm sure there's other solutions but I don't see the options.

The thing is, I know people are going to tell me to de-escalate the situation, but how? He seems to be taking more advantage of this when I do try to de-escalate and tries to do worse things next time.

I can't walk away either, this is the bar that my social circle hangs out at every weekend.

Telling the bar managers won't work, they don't give a shit.

If it's just some rando I of course will de-escalate and ignore and try my best not to fight, but this is a consistent pattern of action from a bully.

So what is the best course of action to take here?