It seems hardly a day goes by without the news reporting of some assault taking place after dark, or else people falling prey to others who wish to do them harm.
One need only turn on the TV to see what I’m talking about. Setting foot in certain places at certain times can be a dangerous practise – I myself rarely stray from busy streets that I’m familiar with.
For Polyana Viana, however, life is very different. She’s one 27-year-old female, weighing less than 115 pounds, you really don’t want to mess with.
A Brazilian MMA fighter signed to the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), she boasts an impressive 10-2 record inside the cage.
A lot of her victories have come via submission, but she’s no stranger to throwing punches and kicks at people intent on hurting her.
In short, she’s about as far away from a pushover as you can possibly be. On Saturday night, a would-be robber found that out the hard way…
When Polyana Viana was leaving her apartment around 8 pm on a Saturday night, a man tried to steal her phone, according Bleacher Report.
As Viana herself explained to MMA Junkie, she was waiting for an Uber outside of her apartment in Rio de Janeiro, when a man approached her and asked for the time.
I guess the man thought that he had found an easy target when he spotted the small woman alone.
But he was greatly mistaken – Polyana was going to make him regret pulling out his ”gun” and trying to intimidate her.
After a short while the alarm bells began to ring, and Polyana soon realized that the man had intentions other than simply finding out the time.
“When he saw I saw him, he sat next to me,” Polyana recalled, according to MMA Junkie.
“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.”
The situation was very threatening but this rude robber was about to meet his match.
Instead of leaving with her phone, he was going to get an unpleasant reminder of the big mistake he made assuming the small woman couldn’t defend or stand up for herself.
Polyana might be small and tiny, but now she was going to put her MMA training to use.
“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,” Polyana recalled.
The robber was definitely taken by surprise, finding himself on the receiving end of a beating when he thought he had the upper hand.
“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.’”
Polyana was able to hold the man until the police arrived, at which point it became apparent the ‘gun’ was no gun at all, but rather a cardboard cutout designed to intimidate
The MMA fighter knows that her area in Jacarepagua, a neighborhood in the West Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is dangerous, which is why she avoids wandering around alone.
However, this Saturday evening she thought she was safe, because Polyana was directly in front of her building’s entrance and had the doormen not far away.
But the doormen didn’t react when Polyana was in danger, it was her own ability to stay calm and defend herself that ensured her own wellbeing.
The confrontation with robber and his cardboard “gun” left Polyana’s hands hurting a little, but it wasn’t anything compared to what her robber was feeling.
“I was fine,” she said.
“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.”
Apparently, this guy wasn’t the first to make that same mistake.
Polyana was previously attacked while living in the city of Belem. That time, she was approached by two men on a motorcycle.
One charged at her, and just like the guy in Rio de Janeiro, he quickly came to regret it.
”He broke my umbrella and tried to take my phone,” Polyana recalled.
“I said I wasn’t going to give it to him. He tried to take it from my hand, I punched him in the face, and he was scared. This time, I was scared. I don’t know if it was because there were two of them,” she furthered.
”So, I was scared, but I think he was more scared than I was, so he jumped on the motorcycle and left.”
Well, I suppose if you play with fire, you’re going to get burned.
Polyana now proven she’s not only a badass in the octagon — when the need arises, she’s one in the streets too.
Thank God Viana knew what she was doing and was in a position to adequately defend herself when the situation arose!
Every girl and woman should learn some basic self defense moves. That guy got what he deserves – good for her !?
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