A hapless thief in Rio de Janiero tried to rob a woman and got a whole lot more than he bargained for. It turned out that the woman he’d tried to rob was UFC straw weight Polyana Viana.

The mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter left a man battered and bruised after he allegedly tried to rob her in Rio de Janiero.

Viana, an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) straw-weight, said she waiting for her Uber in front of her apartment complex Saturday night when a man approached her.

Polyana said that he must have been sneaky because when she noticed him he was already pretty close to her.

Speaking of the incident Viana said:

“When he saw I saw him, he sat next to me, 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 realised 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.’”

It turns out that the gun the robber threatened Viana with was just cardboard roughly cut into the shape of a gun, according to StopTheWorld.

Pic credit Polyana Viana

“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,” Viana said. “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.’

Denver local reported that Viana, 26, beat up mugger so badly he begged her to call the police.

“He said, ‘Call the police, then’ because he was scared I was going to beat him up more,” said Viana.

Pic credit: Polyana Viana. (In red)

He was taken to hospital to be treated before being taken to the police station, meanwhile Viana went home and cooked herself dinner.

Viana said she also learned at the station that the man had been arrested before and had only recently been released.

She also said her hands hurt a bit the day after but it was no big deal.