MMA fighter wrestles gator on the prowl for water in parched Texas neighborhood
A former MMA fighter faced off with a gator that his daughter discovered in the yard. Drought likely displaced the reptile.
MMA fighter wrestles drought stricken alligator
A former MMA fighter took on an alligator which accosted his daughter in the front yard. Wildlife officials say that the gator was probably in search of water with the area suffering extreme drought conditions.
MISSOURI CITY, Texas - An alligator and an MMA fighter faced off Tuesday morning, and we've got the video to prove it.
"I’ve seen deer, coyotes, hogs. I’ve never seen an alligator out of the water," says Missouri City resident Mike Trinh.
The alligator had clearly never seen a Mike Trinh before, a man who started his Tuesday by mounting the wild animal.
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"I guess you can cross it off my bucket list," smiles Trinh.
The day actually began with the gator greeting Trinh’s daughter on the front porch of their Missouri City home as she was headed to her first day of middle school.
Trinh's daughter found the gator in the front yard on the way to her first day of middle school.
(Mike Trinh / FOX 26 Houston)
"She ran back, told me there was a gator in front of the house. I thought she was playing, trying to skip school and I said no you’re going to school. Came out, that thing was waiting right in front of my door," Trinh recalls and he tried calling someone to come and get the not so cuddly creature, but he couldn’t quickly reach the right person. So he took matters into his own super skilled hands.
"Once you sit on its back, I pinned him with my knees on his head. I spun to the back, back take, grabbed the mouth," Trinh explains.
Sounds pretty technical, huh?
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"I guess I can cross that off my bucket list," Trinh said.
(Mike Trinh / FOX 26 Houston)
You see, Mike Trinh is a retired MMA, Mixed Martial Arts Fighter and a Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu, but for those of us who can’t take on a wild animal and win we should call county animal services when toothy trespassers stop by.
"We like to normally handle anything between four feet and five foot and under. Anything bigger than that we always like to call the game warden. Alligators are protected animals in the state of Texas," says Rene Vasquez Director of Fort Bend County Animal Services and Vasquez adds. "As we all know we’ve had no rain, a drought and so a lot of their ditches, bayous, ponds are drying up and if people have sprinkler systems, believe it or not they will come up to water."
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The MMA fighter wrestled and bound the gator then put it in his truck to release.
(FOX 26 Houston)
"It was right there in my yard. There it was right in front of the door. Right there hissing," Trinh says and after a brief squabble with the animal he ultimately put the gator in the bed of his pickup, drove to a nearby pond, backed up to the water’s edge and the wildlife that wandered into his yard seeking water, doesn’t have to search anymore. The gator quickly swam away in the pond and disappeared under the surface of the water.
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Trinh drove the gator to a local pond and released it.
(FOX 26 Houston)
"I figured (it was) the right, humane thing to do was just release it back," says Trinh.
Alligators are superfast animals and Vasquez wants to remind everyone that gators also use their strong tails to fight, so subduing an alligator is definitely something he suggests you leave to the professionals.