Robber left bloodied after targeting UFC's Polyana Viana armed with a cardboard gun

A would-be robber in Brazil was made to regret the moment he targeted the Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) Polyana Viana - armed with a cardboard gun.

Viana, who has a 10-2 MMA record, was waiting for an Uber outside her apartment in Rio de Janeiro when the man approached her and asked for the time.

The suspect then told her to give him her phone and warned Viana he was armed.

That's when things took an unexpected turn, as far as the man was concerned.

Viana told MMA Junkie: “He was really close to me. So I thought, ‘If it’s a gun, he won’t have time to draw it.’

"So I stood up. I threw two punches and a kick. He fell, then I caught him in a rear-naked choke.

"Then I sat him down in the same place we were before and said, ‘Now we’ll wait for the police.’”

Dana White, the president of the UFC, shared an image of the robber's battered face on social media following the altercation with Viana.

It later transpired that the gun was in fact cardboard which had been cut into the shape of a weapon.

Viana kept the man restrained until the police arrived and he was treated for his wounds before being taken to the police station, according to MMA Junkie.