It seemed pretty likely that Justin Bieber was joking when he challenged Tom Cruise to a fight . . . and he admitted that yesterday when the paparazzi asked him about it.

He said, quote, “I don’t know him.  He’s tight.  The story is I saw an interview with him, and he was just on my mind.  It was just a random tweet.  I do that stuff sometimes.”

He added, quote, “He’d probably whoop my ass in a fight . . . I’m really skinny right now.  I think he’d probably be out of my weight class . . . He’s got that dad strength.”