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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
A man in New York City who helped police take down a serial stabber on the subway this weekend is bringing dome good press to the sport of mixed martial arts and the UFC in particular.
Joe Lozito, who this weekend fought through an attack by Maksim Gelman, who unbeknownst to him had been wanted in the stabbing deaths of four people over a 28-hour period this weekend, using moves he claimed he learned in 20 years of watching the sport. According to Lozito, he'd never trained before, but in being a longtime fan he had picked up some things in the process.
Lozito suffered some cuts to his head and arms before he took Gelman down, but take him down he did, likely saving the lives of several others in the process. His heroic story has been getting a lot of press in New York, but the humble Lozito got something more on Monday night.
UFC President Dana White met with Lozito with a MyFoxNY news crew present to congratulate him and offer him a number of UFC-related items, including one big gift for his heroic act.
"I want to have you both down to a fight and have you sit at my table for the fight in New Jersey," White said, referring to UFC 128 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on March 19.
Check out the MyFoxNY news story below for more information on Lozito's encounter with Gelman, as well as the meeting between White and Lozito.
App Users Video Link: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/manhattan/subway-hero-meets-ufc-president-20110214
Penick's Analysis: This is just a really cool story of everyday heroism, but it's also an excellent piece of publicity for the UFC and the sport in general as it continues to work towards regulation in the state of New York. It was just a really great gesture on White's part to do what he's done for the humble Lozito, who doesn't believe he's done anything extraordinary. But he did do something extraordinary. A lot of people don't take action in situations like that, but he stepped up, not knowing the man he was engaging with had already killed four people, and he stopped him. It's cool that he used knowledge from watching the sport for 20 years to work against him, and that's a nice story for the UFC to latch onto right now, but really it's just a remarkable story in general of a man taking action, saving his own life and likely many others because of that.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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