BAMMA champion Rany Saadeh stops shoplifter with double-leg takedown

A shoplifter chose the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to rob a beauty shop in Berlin full of luxury perfume on Wednesday. One…

By: Steve Hauser | 8 years ago
BAMMA champion Rany Saadeh stops shoplifter with double-leg takedown
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

A shoplifter chose the wrong place at the wrong time when he tried to rob a beauty shop in Berlin full of luxury perfume on Wednesday. One of Germany’s top talents, 21-year old BAMMA flyweight champion Rany Saadeh, witnessed the scene and didn’t think twice. He chased the thief, tracked him down and slammed the heavier man down to the ground with a double-leg takedown.

“Shop security staff looked helpless, so i pursued the guy,” Saadeh told German outlet GNP1.de. “As I chased him, he threw all his stolen goods at me.”

Two members of shop security as well as a plainclothes officer joined the pursuit, but caught the wrong guy at first. “It was pure comedy, like in an old ‘Police Academy’ flick,” laughed Saadeh. “At first, they went after me, because they thought I was the criminal. The security staff was all scared and ducked out of sight. They did not come out until I took the guy down and detained him. Then they went after him.”

But instead of being treated like a hero, the young MMA prospect didn’t even receive a simple “Thank you” for his bravery. “Unless an old woman gets robbed, I’ll never play ‘Batman’ again,” he laughed.

Saadeh is currently curing a staph infection that sidelined him for over two weeks and kept him from his first BAMMA title defense in April. The little cops and robbers game in the shopping mall was a good performance test for him, he says. “I felt good running and wrestling, I didn’t lose much over the last weeks.”

Rany Saadeh is 6-1 as a professional and currently ranked number 10 in Germany’s pound-for-pound ranking. He won the BAMMA championship in August with a decision win over Jody Collins.

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Steve Hauser
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