No one saw the alleged punch. It was just another of his sea stories that got out of hand when he got big with his book.
He also claimed that he was at the Superdome in Katrina sniping bad guys, and that in Texas on a stretch of highway he killed two carjackers at a gas station. The cops were given a magic number to call at the Pentagon and they just let him go.
None of that has the slightest proof. I won’t call it lying, it was sea stories that got out of hand. But the next day he told a woman he punched him? And in that crowded bar -nobody-saw it. There was no security cam, nothing.
He served well, and then joined a grand tradition of BS peddling. Pappy Boyington did the same. According to John Bolt his TV series basically made up everything except there was a VMF-214 and it flew Corsairs. There are many of those stories.
Kyle made it up, Ventura was an ass, the publisher committed a tort, and lots of tragedy there. Nobody used a lick of sense.
I imagine lawyers made out well but that’s about it.