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| Professional MMA fighter Jung Won-hee / Korea Times file |
By Yoon Ja-young
A professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter used his skills to save his neighbors from being attacked by a dog that pounced on a smaller one that was being taken for a walk. The small dog was mauled to death, but the MMA fighter pinned down the attacking dog and saved 10 residents, including the owner of the little pooch, from injury.
According to the Hankook Ilbo, the sister paper of The Korea Times, Jung Won-hee, a professional MMA fighter affiliated with Kingdom Jiu-jitsu Bokhyeon Gym in Daegu, heard a woman screaming while walking through an apartment complex July 10. It was around 9:40 p.m. and he was returning home after meeting a friend.
When he rushed to the scene, a white Pomeranian was being mauled by a large dog. The owner of the Pomeranian and a group of bystanders were unable to restrain the attacking dog due to its size and ferocity.
Jung, a flyweight standing 168 centimeters tall, used what's called a "knee on belly" technique from jiujitsu, using his left hand to grab the wild dog by the back of its neck and pinning it onto the ground. The dog released the Pomeranian and Jung told the owner to take it quickly to the vet. The Pomeranian, however, was later pronounced dead.
Jung let the wild dog loose after the Pomeranian and the owner left the scene. Around 10 apartment residents who watched the incident praised the fighter. Jung headed home afterwards.
News of the fighter's heroic action spread online after the pet owner's husband posted a message describing what had happened. The husband asked people to help him find the fighter to thank him for helping his wife who, without Jung's help, could have been attacked.
After a five-day search, the husband managed to get in touch with Jung by phone. The husband said he wanted to pay the fighter for the help, but Jung refused, saying he only did what he had to do.
Jung told the Hankook Ilbo that he thought about his 100-day-old baby boy while pinning the dog down. "It came to me that my son could also be in a similar situation someday ... I just wanted people to be safe."
He said he was able to control the huge dog, because he grew up with dogs that his grandfather raised in a vineyard in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, which is his hometown. With those dogs around when he was a child, he learned that he could control the animals without hurting them by holding the backs of their necks.
"Since the life of the wild dog also matters, I tried not to hurt it," he said.
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