The UFC contender and another MMA fighter, Patrick Robinson, were the heroes of the hour in Houston
Kevin Holland © Mike Roach / Zuffa LLC
UFC welterweight contender Kevin Holland was the hero of the hour after the MMA star and another MMA fighter, Patrick Robinson, stepped in to stop an alleged wild gunman in a Houston sushi restaurant and averted a potential tragedy.
Local police received a panic alarm call from the Ra Sushi restaurant at the Highland Village outdoor mall located in the River Oaks area of Texas’ largest city at around 11.30 pm on Monday, when several patrons also rang them reporting a shooting.
When officers arrived, the 24-year-old suspect was being held down by customers after Holland and Robinson intervened with another patron.
“We were eating and, the next thing you know, a gunshot just popped off,” explained Robinson, with police saying the gunshot forced between 40 and 50 customers to seek cover.
“So everything paused and then everybody started running to get down under a table.
“We got him down, apprehended him, got the gun away from him and the bag that he had.
Legend, @Trailblaze2tophttps://t.co/JMGkKkCUAQpic.twitter.com/Mi69WSBBWi
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) March 15, 2022
No injuries were reported, with police saying that the quick-thinking pair probably helped to save lives.
“You see it on the news, or you see it on TV or the movies and stuff, but you never see it actually in life and it is crazy that nobody got hurt,” said Robinson, who was visiting Houston from Dallas.
Cops said that the suspect was also wanted for failing to show up in court on a criminal mischief charge and now faces additional charges for possessing a stolen gun and discharging a firearm.
MMA reporter Ariel Helwani claimed that Holland had initially refused to be interviewed by local media, leading to his name being absent from many early reports on the incident.
Holland confirmed he was the scene through an Instagram story featuring both him and Robinson as well as police cars parked up. “I’m drunk and fighting – kung fu fighting,” he captioned the photo.
On Tuesday, Holland also tweeted: “About last night, though… I’m ok.”
In October, he used what he described as a “Khabib [Nurmagomedov] scarf hold” to detain a car thief after a wild chase, deciding to take the law into his own hands rather than immediately call police.
Holland recalled his heroics to Helwani and described how he got on top of the suspect after tracking him down.
“He was like, ‘I can’t breathe,’ so that’s when I picked him up, put him on the curb. I didn’t want to be like the cop with the ‘Can’t Breathe’ guy, so I was like, ‘f*ck it let’s just put him over here,'” said Holland, referencing the 2014 murder of Eric Garner by New York police.
Holland secured a second-round TKO win over Alex Oliveira at UFC 272 less than two weeks ago.
