Provocation?

'I did not provoke him, I responded verbally to a provocation,' Materazzi told the daily Gazzetta dello Sport on Tuesday.
'We both spoke and I wasn't the first. I held his shirt but don't you think it is a provocation to say that 'if you want my shirt I will give it you afterwards'?
'I replied to Zidane that I would prefer his sister, that is true. I brought up his sister and that wasn't a nice thing, that is true,' said Materazzi.

------

Nah, not one bit. How could it be provocation in the first place? Shirt-grabbing was always outlawed in soccer...