Oregon-Based 10th Planet-Trained MMA Fighters Foil Hotel Robbery

(Video courtesy of YouTube/Hollywood2NY)

A would-be thief picked the wrong hotel to rob last week.

According to the LA Times, 31-year-old Luis Rosales walked into a hotel in Los Angeles’ Koreatown around midnight on Wednesday and pointed a gun at the night manager, telling him to fill his duffle bag with cash. When he attempted to flee the scene, the manager grabbed the suspect in a bear hug and managed to keep him from grabbing the gun he had put back in the bag and yelled for help from a pair of guests who had exited the elevator in the hotel lobby.

The men, who happened to be competitors in last weekend’s World Jiu-Jitsue No-Gi Championship in Long Beach, quickly sprang into action.


(Video courtesy of YouTube/Hollywood2NY)

A would-be thief picked the wrong hotel to rob last week.

According to the LA Times, 31-year-old Luis Rosales walked into a hotel in Los Angeles’ Koreatown around midnight on Wednesday and pointed a gun at the night manager, telling him to fill his duffle bag with cash. When he attempted to flee the scene, the manager grabbed the suspect in a bear hug and managed to keep him from grabbing the gun he had put back in the bag and yelled for help from a pair of guests who had exited the elevator in the hotel lobby.

The men, who happened to be competitors in last weekend’s World Jiu-Jitsue No-Gi Championship in Long Beach, quickly sprang into action.


(Video courtesy LAPDOnline)

Brent Alvarez, 33, who owns Twisted Web MMA, a 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu affiliate in Eugene, Oregon and Billy Denney, 28, who is one of his students, subdued the struggling assailant and Alvarez used a body lock and rear naked choke to hold the man until police arrived. Apparently he thought a Twister would be too flashy.

Throughout the incident, the pair tried to reassure the thief, who was begging them to let him go so he could see his young daughter who he claimed was the motivating factor in the robbery, that he had simply made a bad decision that will do his family more harm than good.

“He wasn’t trying to punch us; he just seemed like someone who had run out of options,” Alvarez said Friday evening. “I think back now and wonder what the hell was I doing? I should have hit him and knocked him out.”

We predict an influx of hotel workers from around the country will start smoking weed and training without the gi in the coming weeks.