Watch: Mixed Martial Artists Foil Los Angeles Motel Robbery

A hint to potential robbers: Scan the area for MMA pros first.

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You may not want your children watching ultimate fighting, but they can certainly learn a lesson from two good-samaritan mixed martial artists. The dynamic duo took down an armed robber who was trying to make off with loot from a hotel where the pair was staying. Needless to say, he didn’t get very far. The Los Angeles Police Department posted footage of the foiled robbery from the hotel’s security camera on YouTube, and it has quickly spread online.

Oregon residents Brent Alvarez, 33, who owns a mixed martial arts studio, and Billy Denney, 28, one of his students, were in Los Angeles to compete in a mixed martial arts conference. They were entering the lobby of their motel when, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, Alvarez heard the hotel clerk yell, “Gun! He robbed me!,” and Alvarez caught a glimpse of the weapon. That’s when the pair burst into action, wrestling the crook to the ground and holding him until police arrived. The LA Times reported that police arrested Luis Rosales, 31, at the scene with a 9-millimeter handgun and the money from the cash register in his backpack.

Alvarez told the Times that the suspect didn’t seem to want to hurt them, and kept insisting he did it for his daughter. “He wasn’t trying to punch us; he just seemed like someone who had run out of options.”

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