What’s worse than running into a karate dojo while trying to abduct someone? Trying to rob an MMA fighter is right up there.
“#badf—ingidea” is how UFC President Dana White framed it, posting on Instagram a picture of 26-year-old Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter Polyana Viana next to the bloodied “guy who tried to rob her.”
BuzzFeed reports the incident happened Saturday evening in Rio de Janeiro, while Viana was waiting for an Uber. Viana tells MMA Junkie that as she waited in front of her apartment, the would-be robber first asked her for the time, then asked her to hand over her cellphone, claiming he had a concealed gun.
Viana decided to call his bluff: “I threw two punches and a kick. He fell, then I caught him in a rear-naked choke. Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, ‘Now we’ll wait for the police.'”
Viana’s suspicions about the gun were right on: It was actually cardboard in the shape of a firearm (see a picture here.) Viana subdued the suspect while passers-by called cops—a move she says the suspect actually seemed to be in favor of.
“He said, ‘Call the police, then’ because he was scared I was going to beat him up more,” she notes. The suspect was taken to a medical facility for treatment for his injuries, then to the local police station, where Viana filed a complaint.
BuzzFeed notes Viana was back to training Monday, with a tweet showing her and MMA manager Alex Davis, who posted, “The Robber Union in Rio de Janeiro is asking that the UFC please give a fight to Polyana soon! They are worried for their safety while she is [loose] out there and with nothing to do!” (So about that dojo incident…)
