It Looked Like an Easy Target — But These Robbers Probably Didn't Know a Champion MMA Fighter Worked Inside

Call it an occupational hazard: if you're robbing convenience stores, there's always a chance that you'll run into a champion mixed martial arts fighter-turned-convenience store clerk.

And if you do, there's the chance that he'll lay a beating on you.

That's what happened to a group of would-be robbers on July 10, when they attempted to steal from a Houston convenience store and instead faced a brutal smack down, KPRC-TV reported.

Mayura Dissanyake spoke to KPRC in a mild-mannered fashion, but when he saw two men accost and assault his co-worker, who was returning from a bank run, Dissanyake sprang into action and demonstrated the fighting spirit that made him a champion fighter in his native Sri Lanka.

Mayura Dissanyake. (Image source: screengrab via KPRC-TV)

Surveillance video captured him rushing into the parking lot where, it seems, the pair of assailants was trying to take the cash his co-worker had picked up at the bank.

(Image source: screengrab via KPRC-TV)

"The first guy I saw, I just kicked him in the face," Dissanyake told KPRC. "Then I punched the other guy."

Aided by another man and the co-worker who had been initially assaulted, Dissanyake chased the robbers back to their getaway car.

(Image source: screengrab via KPRC-TV)

One of the attackers didn't make it to the getaway car — and Dissanyake told KPRC he made sure he didn't go anywhere until the police showed up.

"I just kicked him until he lays down on the floor," he said. "Until he stopped moving cause I wasn't sure if he had a knife or a gun so I wanted him to stop moving."

That man turned out to be 33-year-old Odell Mathis, who was arrested and has been charged with robbery with bodily injury, KPRC reported.

According to the news station, police would not provide Mathis' mug shot as the man may have been involved in other crimes and they plan to use his picture for lineups.

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