Female UFC fighter Polyana Viana brutally beats thief (Photo)

A UFC fighter Polyana Viana waiting for her taxi in Rio de Janeiro may have appeared an easy target to a would-be thief, but he grossly miscalculated.

The only problem for the unfortunate thief was his target was a strawweight UFC fighter, who turned the tables on the thief with punches, a kick and a “rear-naked choke” before forcing him to sit and wait for the police.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Polyana Viana, nicknamed “the Iron Lady”, told website MMA Junkie the thief used a fake gun to try and steal her mobile phone while she waited outside her apartment block on Saturday night.“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’.”

Viana said police took the man to a medical facility to treat his wounds and then to the police station, where she filed a report.

UFC president Dana White applauded Viana, tweeting an image of the fighter alongside the mugger.

“On the left is @Polyana_VianaDF, one of our @UFC fighters and on the right is the guy who tried to rob her #badf***ingidea,” White tweeted.