A 25-year-old Huntington Beach man is now in critical condition and fighting for his life after sustaining serious injuries Friday while trying to break up a fight that had started between a large group of teenage skateboarders.

According to police, the fight broke out just before 8 p.m. Friday in Murdy Park at Goldenwest Street and Warner Avenue between two groups of teenagers totaling about 40 individuals.

"We don't know exactly what happened in the park leading up to the assault of our victim," Huntington Beach Police Lt. Mitch O'Brien said.

It is alleged that the victim, who remains unnamed, stepped in after his girlfriend unsuccessfully tried to stop the fight and started getting assaulted. The teens turned their attention to the victim after he tried to protect his girlfriend, and from there things got ugly.

"It was a very brutal attack, we have no reason to believe that the victim had anything to do with these groups before he tried to intervene in this altercation," said Lt. Bo Svendsbo of the Huntington Beach Police Department.

Four boys are believed to have assaulted the victim with their skateboards, while several more of their friends were looking on and video taping the action, which eventually was posted to Facebook. The four suspected teens have since been arrested and now face attempted murder charges.

Not everyone is buying that story, however. One of the four suspects' fathers is now coming forward to say that his son was the original victim, and that everything that happened to the man stemmed from self-defense.

"My son said that he did not hit the man. He ran from him, threw the skateboard at him because the man was attacking him with a screwdriver," said the father, who did not want to be identified.

He went on to say that two other boys had claimed that they began to hit the victim on the head with their skateboards in an attempt to save the father's son. Police say they have no information that would corroborate the story.