Javier Baez doesn’t compete in MMA anymore, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t ready for a fight.
This past Wednesday, Baez found himself unexpectedly having to employ his skills in self-defense when he was attacked by a knife-wielding stranger in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Cutler Bay, Fla., a town in the western part of Miami-Dade county.
Baez managed to subdue the attacker by avoiding a charge, slamming him to the ground, and then apparently choking him with an arm-triangle.
Watch the stunning footage of the incident below, courtesy of UFC fighter Terrance McKinney, who posted the video to social media.
Baez spoke to several local news outlets following the attack and he explained that the stranger, identified as 50-year-old Omar Marrero, first aggressively approached Baez’s car with a 14-inch knife before later charging at Baez with a foot-long knife.
“Guy was out there screaming on the phone, literally was fighting for a while with some woman,” Baez told CBS Miami. ”He tapped on my door window. I told him to leave me alone, and then he came at me with a knife. I told him to leave me alone. I’m calling the cops. I hope he doesn’t break my window. That’s all I cared about.”
After Baez subdued Marrero, Miami-Dade Police arrested the attacker. Marrero is being charged with two felonies.
Baez (5-2-1), who credited training at Florida’s MMA Masters gym for his preparation, has not competed professionally since December 2018, when he lost via submission to future LFA and Cage Warriors fighter Diego Silva. When it came time to deal with Marrero, his training kicked in without a thought.
“Second nature,” Baez said. ”When you practice every day, you don’t think about it. Put his belly to the floor, put my knee in his back, and called the cops.”
Watch more of Baez’s account below, as told to local Miami news affiliate ABC News 10 (courtesy of Twitter user @JiujitsuOtter).
“Once I started putting the choke in, he kind of just let [the knife] go,” Baez told ABC News 10. “Because nobody’s worried about anything else but breathing when you’re losing air.”
