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VIRAL VIDEO: MMA Fighter Wards Off Knife-Wielding Assailant

By CM Chaney · November 11, 2023

In brief…

  • Viral video shows ex-MMA fighter Javier Baez fending off knife attack
  • Attacker Omar Marrero cracked Baez's windshield before charging at him
  • Baez used arm triangle and chokehold to restrain and KO Marrero
  • Police charged Marrero; Baez said his MMA training helped subdue him
A viral video shows former MMA fighter Javier Baez using his training to swiftly counter a knife attack in a parking lot and choke the assailant unconscious.  CBS Miami / YouTube

A video recently went viral showing former MMA fighter Javier Baez getting attacked by a knife-wielding man in a parking lot, only to quickly gain the upper hand and choke his assailant unconscious.

Security footage captured a man, later identified by police as Omar Marrero, banging on Baez’s car door and ultimately cracking the windshield with a knife. When Baez stepped out telling Marrero to leave him alone, Marrero charged at him.

Baez, keeping calm, put Marrero in an arm triangle to restrain him, then transitioned to a chokehold once the knife was secure. After Marrero lost consciousness, Baez disarmed him and kept him pinned until police arrived.

“Once I got there, I put him in an arm triangle. I was like, ‘You know what? The knife’s stuck, he’s not going to put it anywhere,’ so I put him in a chokehold,” Baez later told TMZ.

Marrero clearly didn’t know Baez’s background as a trained MMA fighter with a 5-2-1 professional record. Baez also holds a black belt in jiu-jitsu, wrestled in college, and has 15 years of kickboxing experience.

Police charged Marrero with two felonies for the unprovoked parking lot attack. The footage serves as a warning that picking fights with strangers is reckless, but targeting trained fighters like Baez can quickly backfire.