I haven't read the book, but if he didn't name him by name, then it doesn't matter. The fact he's making a big deal of it sort of alludes to the idea he did get his ass kicked. I think it is shitty to sue his wife, she can't even grieve and then those motherfuckers at some "church" decided protest his funeral, then this other motherfucker talking about how he's in hell in some sort of childish Dante wannabe diatribe, selling it on the net. Now this.
BTW, I had a friend who swore he saw the deceased leader of the Hells' Angel's beat the shit out of Van Damme at a NY bar. He got his bike stolen during it. I've heard Van Damme claims it didn't happen either. Nobody likes to admit they got their ass kicked. But you know what? I got my ass kicked a lot before I started fighting back and realized I could fuck them up too. I've been in enough to know that nobody is really the winner though.
And if it was such a big fucking deal, he should have had him, Chris Kyle, charged with assault and battery way back in 2006. Leave his wife alone. Besides, doesn't he have some UFO's to chase and citizenship to deny?
The honorable thing to do would be to play the fucking part and get paid that way. I seen guys take shit for stuff they didn't do in order to preserve the honor of the unit or to protect their comrades. He may have a right to redress, and perhaps he's correct, but it doesn't mean he has to pursue it.
Finally, I bet this is between the lawyers more than anything else. They stand to win or lose here, Mrs. Kyle already lost and Ventura really has nothing left to win --he's pretty much won it all his whole life already. This is news for us, probably non-sequitur for them.