Chad Freeman, a Bellator and KOTC vet, slapped a lapel choke on a man who is accused of stealing his truck.
Chad ‘The Diamond’ Freeman, 42, owns a professional MMA record of 8-6. His last fight was at Bellator 119 in 2014. Before that he competed in the Fivestar Fight League, King of the Cage, and MFC promotions. Today Freeman, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Suyan Querioz and Carlos Santos, is a martial arts instructor at Boa Martial Arts in Kamloops, B.C.
This week, Freeman made headlines after utilizing his mixed martial arts and grappling pedigree to capture an alleged criminal. CTV Vancouver reports that Freeman was woken up early on Monday morning by his daughter, who told him that his truck was being stolen.
Freeman rushed to see what was happening, but was only able to catch sight of his truck driving off into the distance. Five hours later a friend told him that he’d spotted the truck close by.
The former fighter located the truck and spotted the suspected thief sitting on some grass by the road. Freeman told CTV that he ran up to the man, put his knee on his stomach and pinned him to the ground.
Freeman said the man responded by reaching into a pocket. That’s when Freeman tapped into his BJJ training. “I didn’t take any chances so I threw a choke on him,” he said. “We call it a lapel choke. I said, ‘if you move, I’ll put you to sleep.’”
The man kept moving. So Freeman made good on his threat.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) showed up shortly afterwards and arrested the suspected car thief. Freeman claims the RCMP found two knives, drug paraphernalia, and a metal bar among the man’s belongings.
Inside Freeman’s truck was a haul of car batteries. Freeman theorizes that the man he choked out was using his truck to steal car batteries in the area.
Cpl. Jodi Shelkie told CTV that the RCMP does not recommend that civilians emulate Freeman when they encounter a possible crime being committed.
“It doesn’t matter your fitness level or your level of skill, if somebody has a weapon then it can be very dangerous,” she said.
Despite what the RCMP think, Freeman appears very confident when it comes to handling suspected criminals. “I’m a pro-fighter,” he said. “I’m a former King of the Cage lightweight champion. I’ve got two MMA titles. I’m a jiu-jitsu black belt. I own my own martial arts studio here, so he broke into the wrong truck.”
If you’re interested, you can check out Freeman’s KOTC title winning performance over Troy Sorenson below. The video comes from Freeman’s personal YouTube account (and is accompanied by very MMA music).