Former UFC featherweight Felipe Colares used his jiu-jitsu skills to stop a man accused of stealing a phone Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro. The MMA fighter was filmed holding the alleged thief on the ground while waiting for police to arrive.
Colares shared photos and a video of the incident on his social media, explaining that he witnessed an “alleged assault to a woman” when he was leaving the gym at Recreio dos Bandeirantes beach.
“I went back to my car and went to the woman to check the situation, and indeed it was a robbery,” Colares wrote. “My friends and I went back to the car and saw the man. After noticing he was unarmed, we intervened and managed to pin the robber using jiu-jitsu techniques.”
Colares is seen asking people to call the cops while holding the man on the ground. The man can be heard saying the woman is his ex. Meanwhile, an older man can be seen pulling the man’s ear while saying, “I’ll kill you right here.”
“Don’t call [the cops], man,” the old man tells Colares. “Let’s throw him at a ditch right there.”
Colares wrote on his social media they were able to return the phone to the woman and added “today we have one less robber in the streets.”
“I don’t recommend unprepared people to do that,” he wrote, “but today I became one percent better.”
Colares (10-4) fought five times in the UFC, scoring wins over Luke Sanders and Domingo Pilarte. He’s currently scheduled to make his Ares FC debut against Alioune Nahaye on Feb. 17.