Renzo in GRACIEMAG archive photo
Having narrated an attempted mugging over Twitter after leaving a New York restaurant last night, Renzo Gracie explained to GRACIEMAG.com how exactly it went down, once the adrenaline had settled.
Firstly, the black belt made it clear that his actions were in legitimate self-defense: “I only reacted after one of the guys grabbed my arm and tried sticking a hand in the pocket where I keep my wallet. That’s when I threw a hook and a straight punch that dropped them to the ground.”
Renzo was also careful to make it clear that he reacted because he’s trained to do so and because he was sure his aggressors weren’t armed: “When I saw that they wanted to rob me barehanded, that’s when I knew I was going to fight. If they had knives or weapons in that situation, I’d have handed them my wallet and cell phone.”
After dropping the first aggressor to the ground, the Jiu-Jitsu professor chased after the second one, but couldn’t reach him: “So I went back to get my car and try and find him. I was lucky and saw him on a corner not far away. I stopped the car at a distance and ran up to catch him by surprise.”
Renzo says he jumped on the robber’s back, sunk hooks and squeezed out a rear-naked choke: “He went straight to sleep and I went on my way.”
GRACIEMAG.com shares Renzo’s warning that it is dangerous to react to a robbery and should only be done when trained in self-defense or in life-threatening cases or situations of extreme danger.
