Mandy Polk is a professional mma fighter. Just the other day she witnessed a robber attacking a woman.
She intervened after hearing the screams. She told wmcationnews5:
“When the women yelled, ‘Help me, help me! Somebody help me!’ That’s when I knew I had to go, and the police were already on the phone,” Polk said.
WMC Action News 5 – Memphis, Tennessee
Polk then held off the robbery suspect by the waist and was conflicted on should she use her fighting skills or just restrain the robber. Polk is a purple belt in brazilian jiu-jitsu.
“Due to my training, I feel like I could be overly prosecuted for any kind of danger I inflict on someone else, especially due to a misunderstanding. What if that’s her boyfriend and they’re fine?” Polk explained.
Other bystanders saw what was happening and tried to help, but during the chaos, the robber got free from Polk’s grip. That’s when he took a swing and landed a punch on Polk. Polk’s last fight was in December 2016 at RFA 46: Johnson vs. Tucker. She lost via KO/TKO to Bellator veteran Katy Collins.
“If I wasn’t trained, it would have been awful. It could have been very, very bad for me if I didn’t know how to move and work myself out of the way,” Polk said.
The robber then ran off, but he left something that may help police track him down. Polk found his cell phone; she turned it over to police.
“I would love for this individual to be brought to justice and jailed. I feel like that’s appropriate,” Polk said. “What can we all do as a society? I would encourage to learn self defense principles. That way they can recognize a true conflict or not.”
No arrest has been made to this date.
