DEFENDING AGAINST KNIFE ATTACKS WITH MMA TECHNIQUES

Joe Lozito is the man who helped New York Police catch a suspect accused of murdering four people during a stabbing spree. The longtime UFC and MMA fan used a double leg takedown against a knife wielding Maksim Gelman and kept him pinned on the ground till the authorities could arrive. Lozito doesn’t train MMA but says he learned to do the move through “osmosis.”

There are techniques from Mixed Martial Arts that can be applied in self-defense situations against a bladed attack. Chicago MMA’s L.J. Tabano talked with Paul Sharp from Sharp’s Martial Arts in Elgin about some of those applications. Sharp, a member of the Elgin SWAT Team, has fought in local promotions and also uses MMA techniques in a system he helped develop for police and civilians to deal with situations against bladed weapons.