Brazilian mixed martial artist Joyce Vieira was posing for a swimsuit photoshoot on a Rio de Janeiro beach earlier this month when she noticed a nearby man staring at her with his penis out, masturbating. Vieira first tried using her words to get the creep to cut it out, but when diplomacy failed, she made use of her highly trained fists and feet.
Vieira discussed the specifics of the incident in an interview with Brazilian paper Folha de São Paulo. When she first saw the man, who has since been identified as 27-year-old Josinei Ferreira, she didn’t register what he was doing. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that his swim trunks were pulled down.
Vieira approached Ferreira and asked him to stop. It was then that she noticed he was “visibly erect, making noises and groaning.” Once again, Vieira told him to stop, to which she says he replied, “Why, you don’t like it? Come here.”
That was when she snapped. “It was very surreal. Generally people who are caught doing this always deny it, ‘No, no, no.’ He didn’t. He continued.” Vieira responded by kicking him. Ferreira punched her back. “But the punch made me even angrier. I wanted to kill him,” Vieira said.
Here are a couple more photos of the fight:
Vieira told Folha it didn’t take long for Ferreira to realize he was overmatched. “When the guy saw that it was going to get real, he started screaming.” When another beachgoer came to Vieira’s aid, Ferreira took off running.
After the encounter, Vieira filed a police report. Through the photos of the incident, police were able to identify Ferreira and arrest him, charging him with sexual harassment. Ferreira has since been released from police custody, and has denied the allegations, saying Vieira was confused and that he was peeing, not masturbating, at the time. The criminal matter is still ongoing.