Man tried to Rob a Martial Arts Fighter but ended up Beaten & Arrested

Polyana Viana (L) and her assailant

A thief met his waterloo on Saturday night in Jacarepagua, a neighbourhood in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after he tried to rob a UFC strawweight Polyana Viana.

Seeing that she was female, and was standing in front of her apartment complex at about 8pm, the man, according to approached her sneakily as she only noticed his presence when he was already quite close.

She recounted the events of the night to MMA Junkie:

When he saw I saw him, he sat next to me. He asked me the time, I said it, and I saw he wasn’t going to leave. So I already moved to put my cell phone in my waist. And then he said, ‘Give me the phone. Don’t try to react, because I’m armed.’ Then he put his hand over (a gun), but I realized it was too soft.

He was really close to me. So I thought, ‘If it’s a gun, he won’t have time to draw it.’ So I stood up. 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.’

She later found out that he wasn’t actually with a gun, but a cardboard paper cutout in the shape of a gun but at the time, she only knew it wasn’t a real gun, but possibly a toy weapon or a knife.

Polyana Viana (wearing red) and the thief (wearing blue)

She then asked passers-by to call the police as soon as she subdued him.

Speaking further of the incident, she said:

“I was fine. I was fine because he didn’t even react after. Since he took the punches very quickly, I think he was scared. So he didn’t react anymore. He told me to let him go, like ‘I just asked for the time.’ I said, ‘Asked for the time my ass,’ because he saw I was very angry. I said I wouldn’t let go and that I was going to call the police. He said, ‘Call the police, then’ because he was scared I was going to beat him up more.”

When the police arrived, the man was taken to an emergency care facility and then to the station where she filed a report.

Turns out he had been arrested before and was only released recently.

Viana went home afterwards and made dinner