In a rush to make time for a pre-training siesta, Rida forgot to lock his car, which allowed an unlucky thief to make an attempt at his belongings. You’d think a car filled with rash guards and jiu jitsu paraphernalia would be a red flag for most robbers, but not this particular perp.
“He actually had some of my stuff. He had my fanny pack which contained my passport, some cash was in there, some credit cards, stuff for training, my clothes, he even had a rash guard.” Rida recalled.
As soon as Rida was alerted to the ongoing break-in, he bee-lined to the scene.
“He was walking away at the time, so I just took off without saying a word,” Rida said. “I went out the back door and he was like 100 feet away, so I started to chase him. When I got close, I yelled and when he turned around, he saw me. You should’ve seen his face!”
It must be a deflating feeling turning around and realizing you’ve robbed a man who stands at 6’3, has muscles on top of muscles, and just busted through the doors of the nearby jiu jitsu academy.
The robber tried to apologize, but it was too late. He’d been caught, and been caught by the wrong guy.
“Right away he was just like, ‘Bro, I’m so sorry.’ I’m like, ‘you’ve got my stuff in your hand and you’re walking away. What do you mean you’re sorry? Today’s a bad day for you.’” Rida said.
Watch The UFC FIGHT PASS Invitational 4 On June 29
“I tried to drag him back and he tried to fight it, so I just nicely foot-swept him to the ground and choked him unconscious, and I knee on belly-ed him until the cops got there. Every time he tried to fight it, I would just slap him in the face a little bit,” he recalled.
Getting choked unconscious and taking some palm slaps in exchange for a couple dollars cash and a fanny pack is a poor trade for this robber, or, one could argue, a just punishment.
Then again, if you decide to rob the parking lot of B-Team Jiu Jitsu, you’re basically asking for this to happen.
This is what happens when you don’t log on to FIGHT PASS and watch Haisam Rida’s performance at QUINTET 1.#QUINTET pic.twitter.com/0JAj10ezAm
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) February 3, 2019
“That was probably one of the worst parking lots you could try to steal from,” Rida laughed. “You have a bunch of world class athletes there. All my teammates that were inside drilling started running outside, and he was surrounded by a bunch of crazy looking guys.”
Rida, a two-time Asian Open champion, certainly could have done more than a choke and some slaps, but chose to restrain himself from his anger.
“Part of me really wanted to f*** him up so bad,” Rida said. “At the end of the day, I didn’t want to get in trouble, so I just did small open palms to the face. I kept it cool, and I think he s*** himself.”
When Rida competes in the FIGHT PASS Invitational on June 29, he’ll certainly have a taller task ahead of him than some street robber, but at least he won’t have to worry about restraining himself.
The aggressive grappler is poised to hunt for submissions, and instead of trying to reclaim his fanny pack, he’ll be in the eight-man absolute grand prix tournament, competing for $30,000.
