There is an unfortunate pattern in mainstream media of naming someone involved in grossly anti-social behaviors as an MMA fighter. It gets more views that way, and truth has little weight today. By “MMA fighter” they often mean “watches UFC and takes selfies while flexing.”
For example, a loathsome video recently surfaced that alleges to show New Jersey resident Tony Cojocaru beating and threatening a helpless teenager. The man was widely identified as an MMA fighter, but isn’t.
Now another NJ resident, Moutasem Aburomi, has been identified as an MMA fighter, and in all likelihood is not. But this one is a hero, so we’ll take it.
Jim Dolan has the story for New York’s ABC affiliate Channel 7.
A mixed martial arts fighter put his training to a different use when he busted into a burning home in New Jersey.
He helped rescue the people trapped inside the home in Paterson.
“You cannot last more than 40 seconds. That black smoke will kill you 1, 2, 3, like nothing,” said Moutasem Aburomi, who rescued residents.
Aburomi knows well how long you can last in smoke like this. The house he ran into Wednesday to save at least half a dozen people was burning and filled with a suffocating smoke.
“This is how I was doing it,” Aburomi said.
Aburomi covered his nose and mouth with his shirt and charged in.
“He just run in there, like everybody, screaming ‘get out, get out’ he took people out, ran back in,” said Gilbert Matos, an eyewitness.
He did. Aburomi used his martial arts background to kick down a door on the first floor to get in and help a mother and her two young children escape.
Then, he went back in and headed upstairs where the smoke was thicker and the air was thinner and had to break down another door.
But he wasn’t done. There was still a man in the attic. Again, he kicked down the door on the third floor and found a man sound asleep in bed.
“Knocked down, I found two beds, one to the left, one to the right with a man with his underwear, and yelled at him, ‘fire, fire, fire!’ Knocked out! He doesn’t know what was going on,” Aburomi said.
Aburomi helped that man to safety too and finally got out himself.
“He’s a hero! There’s not many like that anymore,” said Adrian Rivera, a neighbor.
“It is the best feeling that I saved, and I was there to help out, help those people out. I can’t explain the way I feel to be honest. I never felt that way,” Aburomi said.
Aburomi says that he now wants to dedicate his life to serving others, saying this was a life-changing experience.
