Polyana Viana Beat Up a Man Who Tried to Rob Her in Rio de Janeiro

A man in Brazil learned a harsh lesson this past weekend: don’t try to rob UFC strawweight Polyana Viana. Viana told MMAjunkie that a man tried to rob her at a fake gunpoint, only to find himself at Viana’s mercy. Vlana said she was waiting for an Uber in front of her apartment complex in the neighborhood of Jacarepagua in Rio de Janeiro when the man approached her.

“When he saw I saw him, he sat next to me,” Viana told the site. “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.’”

The gun was not actually a gun, but instead a piece of cardboard cut into a gun shape. Viana said that she knew it wasn’t a real gun at the time but didn’t realize what it was until afterward. She said that she asked a passer-by to call the police once she subdued the man, then kept his arm immobilized until authorities arrived. The man was taken to an emergency care facility, and then to the police station where Viana filed a report.

“I was fine,” Viana 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. 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.”

Viana said that after she left the police station, she went home. She told the outlet that her hands hurt a little but but that she’s otherwise okay.