In the fictional world of comic books, whenever a superhero arises, it's usually from the depths of despair in a Metropolis area surrounded by violence. The real-life vigilante tale of Ro Malabanan reads like a narrative straight out of the Marvel Universe. At the age of nine, he migrated to New York City from the Philippines with his parents, where he was often picked on and harassed because of his Asian heritage. As he got older, being a victim of abuse set Malabanan on a path toward exploring various self-defense methods, which eventually resulted in him becoming an MMA fighter with a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and a yellow belt in judo. All of these skills came in handy when the 44-year-old boxing instructor hit the streets of Manhattan and made his way to work on Wednesday morning. During which time, he witnessed a man named Samuel Frazier (28) punch a construction worker. Apparently, Frazier had victimized other people in the area, too, striking them for no reason at all. So, in an act of heroism, Malabanan checked on the status of the victim before springing into action, chasing down the assailant and going toe to toe with him in full display of the public.

“My jiu-jitsu instincts just kicked in. I jumped on his back,” Malabanan said. “He tried to swing me off then, but for those of you in the know, a seatbelt position dragged him down to the floor, and I immediately took his back and pinned him to the ground.”

This incident occurred in Manhattan's Soho district, right in front of the Converse store located on Broadway. Once onlookers noticed that Fraizer had been subdued by Malabanan, they happily joined in to keep him at bay until local authorities arrived because many of them had been attacked by the perpetrator earlier in the day.

“Out of nowhere, people were like ‘Yeah this guy punched me in the face,’ ‘Yeah this guy hit me,’ ‘This guy hit an old guy,’ ” Malabanan said.

The aftermath of the takedown was captured on camera, and it depicted a verbal exchange between Malabanan and Frazier, as the latter pleaded his case to be released before the cops arrived.

“They were walking into me,” Frazier pleaded.

“Nah, that’s bulls–t, bro, you still don’t punch people in the face for no f—ing reason,” Malabanan responded.

Law enforcement arrived shortly thereafter to arrest Fraizer and charge him with two counts of assault. 

Source: MSN