Oh, Matt Hamill. There’s no way we can quit you.
Hamill, famed in the MMA community and well beyond for his success as a hearing-impaired UFC fighter, was a different sort of hero recently when he helped defuse a potential calamity on a busy New York interstate.
Hamill was on his way to visit relatives in Ohio when he noticed a car driving the wrong way down I-90, near Rochester, New York. He also noticed that the driver appeared not to be fully cognizant of the dangerous situation being created.
“She was going on the wrong side of the street, and you could see her face, she was kind of drooling,” Hamill told Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com. “There was obviously something going on with her that just wasn’t right. She was breathing fine, but you could just tell there was something, some issues.”
Hamill turned his vehicle around and pursued the car, which eventually wound up on a grassy median. Hamill got out of his own vehicle and approached the car. That was when he noticed the child in the back seat.
“He had a seatbelt on and he was in his car seat, but I’m sure it was a scary situation and he was worried what was going on. The mother was just weaving all over the road,” Hamill said. “He was fine and everything, just a little bit upset, but if she hadn’t been stopped I definitely feel like someone would’ve ran into something. The mother was on drugs and had been drinking apparently.”
Hamill punched through the window of the car and turned the vehicle off.
It happen on the way to Ohio to see my family for Easter. http://t.co/mRAuqv0xbE
— Matt Hamill (@Hammerufc) April 2, 2015
The driver was subsequently identified as 27-year-old Nicole Amendola and arrested for felony DWI and second-degree reckless endangerment, according to a report from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Her six-year-old son was reportedly turned over to another family member.
No one was injured during the incident. Hamill said in the interview with MMAFighting that police thanked him for assistance.
Hamill (11-5) is now 38 years old and competing under the World Series of Fighting banner. He was scheduled to fight Thiago Silva March 28 at WSOF 19, but an illness forced him to withdraw the day before the event. Without a victory since 2012 and a loser in three of his last four, Hamill is undoubtedly on the downside of his career. He has already retired from pro MMA twice, only to return each time to live competition.
He said in the interview that he is on the mend and looking to fight again.
“It’s definitely slow going, but I’m getting there,” Hamill said. “I’m getting back to the gym soon and I’ll be training.”
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