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A street robber ended up pleading for mercy from the woman he tried to hold up - after she took him down in a jiu-jitsu move then held him in a leg grip until the police arrived, it was reported today.

Footage posted yesterday shows a sobbing Wesley Sousa de Araujo screaming, crying for his "daddy" and pleading for someone to call the police as Monique Bastos locked his neck in a triangle choke.

It is alleged that Araujo and another man had earlier approached Ms Bastos and another woman on a street in Acailandia, western Brazil - unaware that his would-be victim was a professional MMA figher and jiu-jitsu blue belt.

Ms Bastos, who has six professional MMA fights on her record, pounced after the men cornered the women on a motorbike and demanded they hand over their mobile phones.

The fighter, 23, later told how she took Araujo to ground in a "rear-naked choke" before locking him in a "triangle choke" for 20 minutes until police arrived.

Ms Bastos told Brazil's iG website: "One of the guys grabbed the mobile phone I was carrying. I could see that they were not armed so I knocked their motorbike down.

"I wasn't afraid. I knew I could immobilise them.

"One of them managed to run away, so I got the motorbike driver with a lion killer and held him in my legs for 20 minutes."

The lion killer is a choke hold in Brazilian jiu-jitsu where the attacker wraps his arm around his opponent's neck, placing the crook of his elbow on his trachea.

In the video filmed on an onlooker's mobile phone, Arauju is heard screaming out for help as Ms Bastos holds him in the lock and applies pressure on his neck.

He shouts: "Daddy, daddy, call the police, daddy. Help Jesus. I swear, it was the first time I've ever done this. Help, Lord, somebody help me. Where's my mum?"

Araujo was taken to the police station, where he denied trying to rob the women, according to reports.