Phoenix Jones better move over. He's not the only crime-fighting MMA aficionado out there these days.
Mayura Dissanyake, a cashier at a Houston convenience store and self-proclaimed semi-pro MMA fighter, recently laid the wood to a couple of would-be criminals who were attempting to steal a money bag from one of Dissanyake's co-workers.
In the surveillance video, first broadcast and reported on by Houston NBC affiliate KPRC, you can see Dissanyake going to work on the two men who accosted his co-worker, who was returning from a bank run.
Dissanyake plants his feet and throws big left and right hooks, although the highlight of the scrap would have to be the swift soccer kick he delivered to a crouching assailant's face to kick off—pun most certainly intended—the counterattack. Come on, Mayura. That move is so illegal in the Zuffa era.
The two men and their getaway car-driving accomplice quickly retreated after Dissanyake's assault. And that's when the best part happens. Dissanyake punches one of the fleeing men in the face as he attempts to reach the escape vehicle. The man fell down, and the rest of the assailants proceeded to escape without him.
"I just kicked him until he lays down on the floor," Dissanyake said, according to the KPRC report. "Until he stopped moving cause I wasn't sure if he had a knife or a gun so I wanted him to stop moving."
Police arrested one of the men, identified as 33-year-old Odell Mathis, and charged him with robbery with bodily injury.
Dissanyake, a native of Sri Lanka, said he had been training in MMA for about a decade.
So, if you're near the Fuel Depot on Houston's south side, you may want to do two things.
First, don't try to steal any money from there. Second, stop in and high-five Mayura Dissanyake for beating down some would-be robbers and making himself into a local celebrity and a feel-good tale for Houstonians and MMA fans alike.
