Third degree BJJ black belt Chris Bower has just gone viral for restraining an attacker in New Zealand using the skills he developed over years of training and competition. Bower is the owner and head BJJ coach at Bower House MMA in Maryland, where he uses his extensive wrestling and Jiu-Jitsu background to teach the next generation of grapplers and MMA fighters. He’s a lifelong wrestler before transitioning to Jiu-Jitsu and was promoted to black belt by Vicente Junior, meaning that he has spent more time on the mats both in training and in competition than most people ever will.
Bower is a frequent competitor in masters divisions at both major IBJJF and AJP Tour events, having won several tournaments under both rulesets. All this to say that there aren’t many worse people for an attacker to confront, and one man in New Zealand found that out the hard way. To Bower’s credit, he explained that he was even trying to remove himself from the situation without the need for physical intervention. When that was no longer an option, he quickly took down and subdued the attacker in order to keep him under control until law enforcement arrived.
Chris Bower shared the video of him restraining an attacker in New Zealand in a recent post to his official Instagram account, and the third degree BJJ black belt explained how the situation unfolded in his initial statement:
“After a 23 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand, I decided to walk the city. A deranged lunatic charged towards me demanding my money. Not knowing if he had a weapon, I backed away to create space. He started to chase after me. I asked many bystanders, hotel, staff, and bus driver to call Police as some man was chasing me trying to rob me. Everyone ignored me. I decided to enter Cafe at Bayleys Coffee Shop to ask them to call the Police. They were the only people to help. The man followed me into the coffee shop and attacked me. I blast double legged him, secured top side control, took his back and then choked him unconscious with his flannel shirt. While he was unconscious, I placed him into the top Mount Position until the Police arrived. Many bystanders initially tried to pull me off the man. You will hear me telling them “I’m a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt, I’m a trained fighter, I have control of the situation.”
”New Zealand is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the World. You never know where or when some dr***ed out lunatic is going to attack you. Keep your head on a swivel. No one us coming to save you. Go train!!!!”
