Obviously a trap, but you know what? F**k it. They provoked it and everyone heard it. I don't care if that apollo goon now has an excuse to step in. In the end the first thought of everyone, who saw this and has two braincells to spare, is that that guy might have paid them.
I wouldn't have sit through that, too. Either those assholes want some or they have been hired and still want some. They tarnished his and his familias name in the public. It would have been better to insult them back, right of the bat. Best case they would have started that brawl. (By the way. Not MC but his buddy start landed the first hit. This must be worth something to piss on Apollo's plan.)
Just imagine, they would just have left the bar without doing anything. Apollo would still continue to harass them or would even do worse things. Now the Apollo familia got, what they wanted, but they would have gotten it anyway, by any means, dealing far more damage. This little provoking job here was done sloppy, raises suspicions against the apollo clan and leaves those provokers as possible witnesses, if you turn them around, which could prove to be easy, as they seem to be pretty pitiful. Playing that little spiel, was the best thing they could do in this situation. At least now the better, other familias will believe them and not the apollo fraction.