Global Courant
A Florida veteran and MMA fighter put on a show for nearly 200 people outside a Jacksonville elementary school when he jostled a 10-foot-tall alligator before bringing it into submission, video shows.
FOX 35 in Orlando reported that a video recording of the incident shows Mike Dragich grabbing the tail of the 10-foot-tall beast and holding his own tail in an impromptu match between man and beast.
“We get there, I walked through the gate and boom,” Dragich told the news outlet. “There it was, just ready to go there in the parking lot, and we just had to get the job done.”
Florida man wrestles alligator at Jacksonville Elementary School. (FOX 35 Orlando)
The MMA fighter again tried to pull the gator by the tail, but he lost control of the animal after dragging the reptile only a few inches.
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The entire time Dragich wrestled the gator, the crowd of onlookers could be heard screaming in excitement and fear.
Dragich was able to get behind the gator and grab it by the neck, and that’s when the scuffle really started.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says, “Alligators are a conservation success story in Florida. Florida has a healthy and stable alligator population, estimated at 1.3 million and made up of alligators.” (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
“I said it before, I felt like Batman, really, you know, I show up. I walk out,” he told FOX 35. “There are a lot of comments saying I look like Stone Cold looking at this alligator walks.”
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Stone Cold Steve Austin is a former WWE wrestler who in his day walked from the backstage of arenas through crowds of screaming fans to get to the ring, without worrying about serving a can. “whoop ass.”
After struggling with the gator for a while, video shows Dragich and several firefighters straddling the gator while three others help keep it down.
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“A lot of fighters will understand that … when you go to the cage you’re nervous, but once that cage door closes, you have to be focused,” he told the news organization. “…honestly, that’s what I remembered that night.”
Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.
