A store clerk trained in MMA fighting techniques stopped a group of would-be robbers at a gas station with his bare hands last month, and now the security camera footage of the fight has gone viral with millions cheering on the good guys.
KPRC Houston reported that Mayura Dissanyake was working on June 10 behind the counter of Fuel Depot near Interstate 45 in Houston, Texas, when his co-worker arrived with the store's bank bag. A group of men exited a nearby SUV and descended on the man in an attempt to steal the bag when Dissanyake ran outside and intervened with fists.
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"[Y]ou see someone get beat up, you just go out," said Dissanyake. "The first guy I saw, I just kicked him in the face. Then I punched the other guy."
Dissanyake said told reporters he was an avid cage fighter, and the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) National Champion for five consecutive years in his native country of Sri Lanka.
"We learn how to punch, how to kick and all that stuff you can use in the streets," he said.
Those moves came in handy when the assailants struck, and security camera footage shows him taking down two of them. Dissanyake eventually immobilized one of the men, 33-year-old Odell Mathis. The suspect's friends hesitated, contemplating whether they should go back for him, but eventually fled, leaving him behind.
"[I] just kicked him until he lays down on the floor, until he stopped moving cause I wasn’t sure if he had like a knife or a gun, so I wanted him to stop moving," Dissanyake explained.
Houston Police Department said they would delay the release of Mathis' mug shot. They want to use it in a few line ups to see if he's committed any other crimes.
More than 5 million people have watched the report on the gas station fight, and Dissanyake told
KPRC this week he's received an outpouring of support on social media after the story broke Friday. He hopes it will bring more attention to his in-the-ring fights.
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