MMA Fighters Stop Robbery at L.A. Motel

Two mixed martial arts fighters applied their grappling and takedown moves in Los Angeles last Sunday night, outside of the octagon. Los Angeles Police say that MMA fighters Brent Alvarez and Billy Denney are responsible for stopping a would-be robber of a LA motel, and video posted by the department shows the two takedown and put the gun-carrying suspect in a chokehold :

The Los Angeles Times writes of the fighters who came off the elevator just in time to save the day:

"Alvarez, who owns a mixed martial arts studio in Eugene, Ore., and Denney, one of his students, were getting off the elevator just before midnight Sunday when they stumbled on the suspect forcing the motel clerk at gunpoint to empty the cash drawer.

The clerk yelled, 'Gun! He robbed me!' Alvarez said he saw a flash of the weapon before the suspect plunged it into his bag with the money.

A former hip-hop club bouncer, Alvarez said that 10 years of training in self-defense and defusing conflict kicked in. The suspect didn't seem to want to hurt them, either, Alvarez said, but kept insisting he did it for his daughter."

The fighter told the Times that the robber did not seem too aggressive, but just like "someone who had run out of options." Authorities arrested the 31-year-old suspect who was carrying a loaded 9-millimeter handgun. The suspect, Luis Rosales, has been booked on $101,250 bail.

The two fighters are competing Saturday in the World Jiu-Jitsue No-Gi Championship in Long Beach.