No it wasn’t Jon “Bones” Jones running down another thief hours before a fight, but once again another brave MMA fighter jumps into action to stop a robber.

According to Karlie Baker of sunsethills-crestwood.patch.com MMA fighter Jesse Finney said he was headed to Schnucks in Crestwood around 7 p.m. on Dec 21 to pick up some chocolate for his pregnant wife.

Finney noticed a female employee running after a man as he approached, but wasn’t sure what was happening.

“I didn’t know if he had robbed the place, or if he’d assaulted somebody, I just saw her. He was pushing her off,” said Finney, who lives in Crestwood and owns Finney’s MMA/All in 1 Fitness.

Finney sprung into action without hesitation, grabbing the man by the coat. When the thief resisted, Finney slammed him to the ground and subdued him in a hold until Crestwood police could arrive, Finney said.

The thief had stashed several bottles of vodka before attempting to leave the store, one of the bottles that was shoved in the man’s coat arm busted when he hit the ground. The incident lasted just a few moments and was witnessed by a handful of other customers and a seasonal bell ringer Finney said.

This was the first time Finney had been in a confrontation of this type, but this brave act was not of just some random bystander. He’s been trained as a professional boxer and MMA fighter, coached for Chuck Norris’ World Combat League, and was featured in Strikeforce on Showtime. He holds a kickboxing record of 23-0, a boxing record of 8-2, an amateur MMA record of 4-0, and a professional MMA record of 6-1.

“In the martial arts, it teaches you discipline and respect,” explained Finney. “If I wasn’t disciplined, I probably would have hurt the guy. Instead, I took him down and a bottle broke in his jacket.”

“My wife was like, “What if he had a gun?” but at the end of the day, I just acted on instinct. I’m not going to let a man push a woman. It was pretty amazing, I was able to stop him, and nobody got hurt.”

It was amazing, it was honorable and Jesse Finney should be proud of his actions. It shows the world that MMA fighters are good people with good hearts. Congrats Mr. Finney.

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