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On Tuesday night, mixed martial arts instructor Jacobe Powell was teaching a class, when a man walked into his Burbank, California, studio with a suspicious, black messenger bag. Powell saw 30-year-old Matthew Lloyd reach inside the bag for what Powell thought to be a gun, and in that instant, his student got to see what Powell, a 34-year-old amateur lightweight fighter for Bas Rutten’s Elite MMA, could really do. Here’s how he described stripping the loaded handgun from Lloyd to KTTV.
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“My instincts kicked in, I used my judo training to go ahead and subdue him, got the weapon away from him before the cops arrived,” Powell told KTTV. “One of my guys here who was training called the police and I just subdued him until the police showed up.”
The news clip shows Lloyd sitting on the curb outside the gym, disoriented, face fully bloodied—as one tends to be after putting himself on the wrong end of a trained mixed martial artist. The gym owner later told reporters that Lloyd is a war veteran who was struggling psychologically and had met Powell for martial arts training; Powell says he doesn’t wish to press charges and hopes Lloyd gets help. (Learn about the MMA “Fight Club” helping veterans cope with PTSD.)
Bas Rutten's MMA Workout:
As of early Wednesday morning, KTTV reported that Powell was in custody on attempted armed robbery charges—after a trip to the hospital, that is.
As for the heroic MMA fighter, Powell had some advice for the public. “If you get a chance to take martial arts or learn judo or jiu-jitsu or any type of self-defense, it could save your life,” Powell said. “You might only need it once, but that one time you need it might save your life.”
