Masha
Last Saturday night, a man tried to steal a phone from 26-year-old Polyana Viana. Unbeknownst to him, his target is a mixed martial artist with a 10-2 record. Needless to say, not only did he fail to acquire the phone—he also got his ass handed to him in the process.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BraeudiD3VY/
The Brazilian strawweight was waiting for an Uber outside of her apartment in Rio Viana, a neighborhood in her native Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro, when the man approached her. The situation escalated quickly, as the man drew nearer and his intentions became clear. Viana recalled the events 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.’”
Viana immediately realized the man did not have a firearm but assumed he was hiding a weapon of some sort. She would later discover that the ‘gun’ was a piece of cardboard cut out in the shape of a handgun.
The following day, UFC President Dana White shared a side-by-side of Viana and the perp, bloodied face and all:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsUUc_hn2hS/?utm_source=ig_embed
According to MMA Junkie, Viana asked passers-by to call the police while she kept him immobilized. When they arrived, they took him to the ER and then to the station, where she filed a police report.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqksWRgDmZw/
The fighter remained calm throughout the ordeal.
“I was fine,” said Viana. “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.”
After she left the police station, Viana went home and made dinner. The next day, MMA Manager Alex Davis tweeted this picture with, captioned with a message to the “The Robber Union in Rio de Janeiro”:
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 lose out there and with nothing to do! @Mickmaynard2 @danawhite @PolyanaViana @NandaPrates_ pic.twitter.com/Iwbp26t38H
— Alex Davis (@Alexdavismma) January 7, 2019