06/08/2026
In January 2019, UFC fighter Polyana Viana was waiting outside her apartment for an Uber when a man approached her and asked for the time. After she answered, he remained seated beside her, raising her suspicions. Quietly, she slipped her phone into her pocket.
Moments later, the man demanded her phone and claimed he was armed, reaching toward what appeared to be a handgun. Viana took a closer look and noticed something unusual — the weapon looked soft and seemed fake.
Acting quickly, she struck him with two punches and a kick, sending him to the ground. She then secured a rear-naked choke, one of her signature MMA techniques, and took control of the situation.
“I threw two punches and a kick. He fell, then I caught him in a rear naked choke,” Viana later recalled. “Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, ‘Now we'll wait for the police.’”
The would-be robber offered little resistance. According to Viana, he was so frightened of being beaten further that he cooperated and even asked her to call the police.
When authorities arrived, they discovered that his "gun" was nothing more than a piece of cardboard.
At the time, Viana was an active UFC strawweight competitor with 10 victories in 12 professional fights, many of them won by submission. Ironically, the same rear-naked choke she used to detain the suspect had helped her win her UFC debut less than a year earlier.
After holding the man until police arrived and completing her report at the station, Viana simply returned home and made herself dinner.
