Joseph Lozito, a 6-foot-2, 270-pound mixed martial arts buff, helped bring knife-wielding maniac Maksim Gelman's deadly rampage to a shrieking halt aboard a subway train. "I wasn't going to go down without a fight," Lozito said Sunday from his bed at Bellevue Hospital. "I took his best shots, and I am still standing."
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011...The knife-wielding maniac then took Kuznetsov's Lexus and drove to the house of Yelena Bulchenko, a young woman he obsessed over, cops said. On his way, he ran down a crossing guard, breaking her legs. Yelena Bulchenko, murdered girlfriend of Maksim Gelman. Gelman stabbed his stepfather in Brooklyn, and later killed Bulchenko and her mother before fleeing in a stolen car, then fatally striking a pedestrian.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...I just knew being a MMA fan would come in handy... for Joe Lozito it sure did, and for all those who would have encountered the alleged killer Maksim Gelman. As a MMA buff, Lozito said that 20 years of watching gave him the skills by osmosis. He says he doesn't want to take away anything from pro fighters, but he says some skills he has acquired were the successful result of his encounter with a killer. Gelman is now in police custody awaiting a stack of charges, thanks to New York hero Joseph Lozito.
40-year-old husband, and father of two boys, teary-eyed Lozito was grateful to be alive... and makes no claim to heroics. In an interview he states some unknown man help stop his bleeding while officers cuffed Gelman. I think that many MMA fighters would have thought twice before doing what Lozito did, but many in New York are glad this terror is over. There are 4 people dead, including Gelman's "ex-girlfriend" and a relative, there was also news of an older pedestrian getting run over.
As a fan of the UFC, I can see how being able to defend yourself is an asset... and things happen just too fast sometimes to even react, but in this case fast reflexes, some skills and knowledge paid off. I don't recommend interfering with an armed assailant, but if your are attacked... fight for your life, and those with you. Some ask me about my faith in situations like this, you know, "turn the other cheek" ...if it is my cheek to turn, I hope I can oblige... but if someone else is in danger, sorry! I just pray those situations don't come my way, and discussing the what ifs are pointless.
I have been threatened with a knife before, but being threatened and someone attacking you are two very different things! Sometimes when one is cut or hurt bad, the body can just shut down in shock... Joseph Lozito is one very fortunate and courageous man who didn't give up, though he was stabbed and slashed repeatedly. With excess of 15 inches of slash wounds, too bad it didn't end sooner, too many people were hurt by this nut case, and it could have been worse for him and many in New York. Apparently this guy Gelman, had drugs on him when he was arrested, and he had a history of crime in the State.
Maksim Gelman was apparently obsessed with the now murdered Yelena Bulchenko, her friends say that she wasn't an "ex" anything... 'They were never a couple - barely friends. He wanted to take it to the next level and she didn't.'
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime...There is too much violence in this world and it is good to have people willing to lay down their lives if necessary to stop anything further, we owe a lot to guys like Lozito, many just don't want to get involved. It is good to see courage when trouble comes knocking!
On the lighter side... a message for you concerned moms out there, this is just one more reason to watch MMA and UFC ...oh and a regular intake of hockey !:]