Jiu-jitsu and other martial arts are frequently touted as great self-defense tools for women, and one Kansas woman reinforced that reputation after a confrontation with an aggressive man on Christmas.
Alexandra Rosa Florez, who trains under Rico Steele and Rorion Gracie black belt Markus Barrett at RSMMA in Junction City, KS, has been training jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai for “a year and a few months,” but has had to take some time off due to a shoulder injury. “I boxed for a year before studying under Markus, but he honed everything and taught proper technique. Including how to hit hard,” she says.
Those hard-hitting skills had to be put into practice on Christmas, when Florez said she was involved in a violent altercation with a friend’s brother.
Florez detailed the alleged incident in a Facebook post:
THIS IS WHY WOMEN’S SELF-DEFENSE CLASSES ARE HORSES***. PUT YOURSELF IN BJJ, MUAY THAI, BOXING, ETC. Posted after being asked to by my BJJ coach:
Jiujitsu classes stopped me from getting choked tonight when a man was on top of me. I threw a few punches at a man three times my size. I threw a knee in somewhere, too. Thanks, Muay Thai. I’m fine. Cops came (I didn’t call them) and took everyone’s statements. Asked if I wanted to press charges. I declined. Would have only been disorderly conduct charges since I wasn’t injured.
The guy who initiated is staying overnight in the hospital. After being knocked out and needing several stitches.
Please, please stop picking on me, thinking I’ll roll over and take it. Please stop thinking you can verbally abuse women. Please stop thinking you can grab women by their shirt. Please stop thinking you can raise your hand to hit them. Please stop thinking you can angrily choke a woman with the intent to hurt them.
You will be ****ing dealt with.
I’m 👏 not 👏 the 👏 one.
After a few comments that asked for more details of the incident or questioned Florez’s account, she edited her post to provide a thorough run-down of what had happened.
Edit: Since most of y’all are so ****ing obsessed with *fAkE*.
I’ve been at my friend’s dad’s house while he is in LA. I’m taking care of his dad. Making sure he has food, takes his medication, and doesn’t get hurt since he’s not mobile. He’s got health issues including gout that make moving around even from room to room difficult.
Well, my friend’s brother (who is 50) and his brother’s wife came over for Christmas dinner and he was acting like an a*shole the moment he got in. As harmless as poking at my drink choice (Bacardi) and telling me I didn’t belong there, to questioning my relationship with his brother, calling me a wh*re and saying I was in the wrong.
I ignored the first comments he had made. He had an angry look on his face and I would smile like a smarta*s and maintain eye contact instead of backing down. He’d slam his silverware and plate and was just acting loud and obnoxious and rude the whole time.
His wife was already mad at him for being an a*shole and walked out, telling him she was done with his sh*t and ready to leave him. He was almost out the door, too, when he started going off on me again from the dining room.
I was eating in the livingroom and walked in to see what he was going off on me about. Then he called me a wh*re a few more times because I’m friends with his brother and dated him. I walked right in front of him. He called me a b*tch for talking back when I said he was a dumba*s and I’ve never f*cked for money, so his constant whore insult made him an idiot and he needed to check himself. His dad had already told him enough and that he needed to leave.
He grabbed my shirt and I stepped back. He reached to grab it again and I punched him twice. He raised his fist and charged at me. I punched him again. He fell onto me and tried choking me but I knee shielded. He was pulled off of me by my friend’s dad, who had been sitting a foot away at the table.
The brother came at me again. I punched him and grabbed his coat then kneed him. Knocked him out with the last punch.
Florez told the Jiu-Jitsu Times that she was “comfortable” with her story being out there, especially after getting so many comments from other women saying that she’s inspired them. However, she recognizes that her training may have been the only thing that kept her safe that night. “I’m blessed to have coaches like Markus and Rico. I probably would have been hospitalized otherwise.”
